What  is  Judaism? 


A  Survey  of  Jewish  Life,  Thought 
and  Achievement 


By 

Abram  S.  Isaacs,  Ph.D. 

Professor  of  Semitics,  New  York  University 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

Cbe    fviiicfcerbocfcer    press 
1912 


COPYRIGHT,  igia 

BY 
ABRAM  S.  ISAACS 


"Cbe  Ytnicfecrbockcr  pre««,  *ew  J?ork 


StacR 
Annex 


in 


SO  much  interest  continues  to  be  felt  in 
the  story  of  Judaism,  in  literature,  art, 
and  the  drama — a  story  that  has  not  reached 
its  final  chapter — that  it  was  thought  help- 
ful and  timely  to  issue  the  present  volume. 
Gathering  in  more  permanent  form  a  number 
of  essays  contributed  within  recent  years  to 
various  periodicals,  it  presents  along  different 
lines  the  message  and  meaning  of  the  Jew's 
religion  and  history,  and  in  the  general 
atmosphere  of  misunderstanding  seeks  to 
vindicate  his  character  and  services. 

The  Jew  suffers,  undoubtedly,  from  being 
regarded  almost  wholly  as  an  antique.  His 
work  and  mission  are  relegated  exclusively 
to  Bible  times;  his  presence  and  claims  to- 
day are  considered  curiously,  if  not  offen- 
sively, out  of  place.  Why,  he  is  an  extinct 
phenomenon — a  Megatherium  from  Pales- 
tine, forsooth!  And  his  religion?  That  is 
for  the  archaeologist  or  the  palaeontologist 


iv  Introduction 

alone.  His  record  in  the  world,  in  the  face 
of  odds  which  would  have  crushed  any  other 
race  or  turned  them  adrift  like  the  wandering 
gypsy,  is  still  largely  unknown.  The  real 
nature  of  his  religion  is  as  practically  a 
mystery  as  in  the  days  of  Juvenal  and 
Tacitus.  His  history  and  his  literature  are 
foreign  territory  and  excluded  from  approved 
systems  of  instruction  in  school  or  college,  as 
if  these  subjects  bore  an  hereditary  taint  of 
their  own. 

Now,  many  factors  contribute  to  this 
widespread  ignorance  and  detraction,  and 
chief  among  them,  perhaps,  is  the  failure  to 
produce  a  clear  and  forceful  exposition  from 
the  Jewish  point  of  view,  which,  while  pre- 
serving a  fair  and  sober  estimate,  shall  tell 
dispassionately  and  convincingly  what  is  to 
be  said,  without  heat  or  prejudice.  Such  a 
work,  broad,  thorough,  discriminating,  will 
rapidly  win  its  right  of  way  and  aid  appre- 
ciably in  curing  the  distemper  which  would 
for  ever  treat  the  Jew  with  disdainful  silence 
or  contumely.  A  more  refined  method,  of 
course,  than  mediaeval  torture,  or  the 
degradation  of  Ghetto  and  gaberdine;  but 
strongly  out  of  touch  with  the  modern  cur- 


Introduction  v 

rent  and  the  pretensions  of  a  newer  age. 
Is  there  such  a  fact  as  atavism  in  civilisation 
— a  reaction  toward  savagery  and  the  hep- 
hep  cry?  And  must  the  Jew  swing  per- 
petually, a  victim,  between  the  upper  and 
the  nether  millstone  of  destiny? 

What  is  the  secret  of  the  Jew's  everlasting 
crucifixion  in  some  form  or  another?  Of 
course,  other  creeds  and  races  have  aroused 
antipathy  and  suffered  the  cruelest  per- 
secution; but  almost  from  the  Jew's  first 
appearance  in  history,  he  seems  to  have  been 
made  the  mark  of  attack.  A  puny  folk  in 
numbers  and  strength,  for  two  thousand 
years  without  soil,  army,  or  political  power, 
why  has  it  created  such  antagonism?  Is  it 
really  such  an  exceptional  class?  Were  its 
pretensions  too  lofty,  its  claims  too  excessive, 
its  dreams  too  ideal?  Has  it  protested  too 
much  and  robed  itself  too  proudly  in  the 
cloak  of  superior  virtue  and  heaven's  livery? 
Were  Apion  and  other  ancient  authors  of 
distinction  justified  in  their  characterisation 
of  the  Jewish  religion  as  superstition  and 
disease,  a  plague-spot  to  be  exterminated 
remorselessly  as  the  highest  duty  to  man? 
And  is  the  proposed  solution  of  the  Jewish 


vi  Introduction 

question  in  Russia  the  proper  one — one 
third  of  the  Jews  to  be  exiled,  one  third  to 
be  converted,  one  third  to  be  slain?  Curious 
fate  of  a  people — to  survive  the  calumny 
of  centuries,  only  to  be  subjected  again  to 
the  olden  slanders,  a  continuous  process  of 
vilification,  whose  end  appears  as  remote  as 
a  thousand  years  ago. 

To  ever  widening  circles  of  cultured 
readers,  of  all  creeds,  and  of  none,  it  is  hoped 
that  this  volume  will  be  welcome.  It  lays  no 
claim  to  the  first  or  last  word  on  the  topics 
discussed,  which  are,  perhaps,  twice-told 
tales  in  more  senses  than  one.  The  author, 
however,  has  tried  to  be  candid  and  un- 
prejudiced. While  essays  of  this  character 
have  their  defects  and  limitations,  and  many 
subjects  deserve  fuller  and  more  careful 
development,  it  is  possible  that  just  such 
unpretentious  treatment  has  its  value  as 
well,  as  a  kind  of  modest  introduction  to  more 
elaborate  works.  It  is  devoutly  hoped  that 
the  book  will  serve  to  arouse  more  interest 
in  its  subject,  doing  its  share  to  clear  away 
the  mist  and  usher  in  the  light. 

The  essays,  which  have  appeared  chiefly 
in  The  North  American  Review  and  The 


Introduction  vii 

Atlantic  Monthly,  have  been  fully  revised. 
Other  papers  are  reprinted  from  the  London 
Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  The  Architectural 
Record,  The  Arena,  and  The  Independent,  in 
the  last  several  years  before  the  World's 
Parliament  of  Religions  at  Chicago. 

A.  S.  I. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION         .         .         .         .  iii 

CHAPTER 

I    WHAT  Is  JUDAISM  ?      .         .         .  I 

II    THE  JEW  AND  THE  CURRENTS  OF 

HIS  AGE         .         .  15 

III  THE  JEW  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    .  32 

IV  THE  JEW  AND  THE  WORLD  .         .  51 
V    HAS  JUDAISM  A  FUTURE?     .         .  64 

VI     THE  JEWISH  HOME      ...  75 

VII     WHAT  Is  JEWISH  HISTORY?           .  86 

VIII     WHAT  Is  JEWISH  LITERATURE?     .  97 

IX    Is  JUDAISM  NECESSARY  TO-DAY?  .  108 

X    THE  TALMUD  IN  HISTORY     .         .123 


x  Contents 

CHAPTER  PACK 

XI  WHAT  Is  THE  CABALA?        .  .138 

XII  STORIES  FROM  THE  RABBIS  .  .149 

XIII  WHAT  MAKES  THE  JEW?      .  .     160 

XIV  THE  STORY  OF  THE  SYNAGOGUE  .     170 
XV  A  NEW  FIELD  FOR  RELIGION  .     196 


What  Is  Judaism? 


What  Is  Judaism? 


CHAPTER  I 

WHAT   IS  JUDAISM? 

IT  is  curious  that  in  our  age  of  advance, 
when  new  light  is  shed  upon  every  sub- 
ject, and  history  has  been  almost  recon- 
structed, with  knowledge  growing  more  and 
more,  and  the  religions  and  races  of  mankind 
knit  more  closely  together  by  travel,  trade, 
and  new  conditions  and  currents, — it  is 
indeed  strange  that  the  nature  of  Judaism 
should  be  still  largely  a  terra  incognita.  The 
general  ignorance  respecting  the  Jewish 
religion  is  all  the  more  surprising  as  its  basis, 
the  Old  Testament,  is  not  a  sealed  book,  and 
the  Jew,  in  all  lands  that  assure  him  liberty, 
mingles  freely  with  his  neighbours  of  every 
creed  and  none. 


2  What  Is  Judaism  ? 

Undoubtedly,  many  causes  have  contrib- 
uted to  prevalent  fanciful  ideas  about  Juda- 
ism. As  the  Jew  has  been  practically  under 
a  ban — socially  and  politically — since  the 
loss  of  national  independence,  it  is  hardly  to 
be  expected  that  his  religion  would  receive  a 
fair  interpretation;  but  it  was  unavoidable 
that  the  prejudice  against  his  race  should  be 
extended  to  his  religion  as  well.  If  in  our 
enlightened  day  this  popular  prejudice  con- 
tinues, although  happily  deprived  of  much 
of  its  violence,  it  is  difficult  to  realise  the 
accumulated  odium  in  the  past,  when  the 
Jew  was  a  byword,  and  his  religion  an  object 
of  scorn.  The  student  of  history  knows  how 
in  the  early  centuries  Christianity  was  both 
misunderstood  and  maligned  by  the  heathen 
world;  no  taunt  or  reproach  was  too  bitter 
to  be  hurled  against  the  Christians  and  their 
religious  rites.  It  is  suggestive  that  in  later 
ages  the  Jews  were  to  be  made  the  target  for 
similar  abuse,  but  the  heathen  were  not  the 
aggressors. 

If  external  conditions,  then,  have  rarely 
been  favourable  for  any  adequate  under- 
standing of  Judaism  as  a  religion,  the  Jew 
can  hardly  be  blamed  for  having  lived  largely 


What  Is  Judaism?  3 

within  his  shell,  so  to  speak,  and  formed  a 
kind  of  state  within  the  state  in  simple  self- 
defence.  But  whatever  the  cause,  Jewish 
exclusiveness  has  done  its  part  to  intensify 
public  ignorance  about  Judaism.  Rigor- 
ously debarred  from  society  and  the  arts  and 
professions  in  general,  and  with  only  the 
lowest  occupations  open  to  him,  it  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  that  the  Jew  felt  disinclined 
to  make  propaganda  for  his  faith,  and  to 
vindicate  its  character  in  public  discussion 
or  learned  treatise.  Jewish  apologetics  are, 
of  course,  to  be  found.  There  is  a  respectable 
list  of  works  in  that  department;  but  they 
were  not  popular  in  tone,  and  hardly  de- 
signed for  the  general  public.  Freedom  of 
speech  is,  after  all,  only  a  recent  acquire- 
ment. Toleration  is  a  blossom  of  very  late 
date.  The  Jew  had  enough  earnest  work  on 
hand — his  conditions  of  existence  were  too 
precarious  for  him  to  enlighten  the  world  as 
to  the  true  meaning  of  Judaism.  And  yet, 
if  the  world  only  knew  it,  at  times  of  the 
sharpest  distress  for  Israel,  in  so-called  dark 
ages  and  in  the  centuries  of  mediaeval  torture, 
Jewish  poets  sang  of  lofty  ideals,  and  Jewish 
sages  exhorted  to  the  broadest  ethical  culture. 


4  What  Is  Judaism? 

The  Jewish  home  was  sweet  and  inspiring; 
and  the  synagogue,  often  converted  into  a 
fortress  to  resist  knightly  violence  or  popular 
tumult,  preserved  the  old  tradition  of  the 
law  and  the  testimony. 

But  those  days  are  past,  even  if  their 
oppressive  shadow  darken  Russian  domains. 
It  is  unwise  and  unnecessary  to  recall  them 
in  happy  America.  Here,  where  all  religions 
possess  the  same  inalienable  rights,  and  each 
can  pursue  undisturbed  its  own  path,  to 
bless  and  benefit  mankind,  Judaism  need  not 
live  within  the  shell.  It  can  do  its  share  to 
throw  aside  the  exclusiveness  which  made 
the  Jew  a  mystery  in  the  past,  and  actively 
co-operate  in  the  solution  of  world-problems, 
with  every  confidence  in  its  capacity  and 
usefulness.  It  can  enter  the  lists  as  a  living, 
working  faith.  What,  then,  is  Judaism,  for 
which  such  high  prerogatives  are  claimed? 
What  is  its  character,  what  its  dogmas,  what 
its  numerical  strength,  what  its  mission? 
What  are  its  propaganda,  what  its  earthly 
and  heavenly  rewards? 

i.  Judaism  is  a  religion  of  daily  life.  It  is 
not  a  formal  creed,  or  a  scheme  of  salvation 
for  the  Jew  only.  It  is  a  practical  religion, 


What  Is  Judaism?  5 

not  a  theoretical  sentimentalism.  It  is  con- 
duct, rather  than  doctrine;  for  righteous 
conduct  is  the  aim  and  purpose  of  every 
ceremony  and  rite.  It  is  not  a  religion  of 
asceticism,  but  of  temperance  and  self- 
control.  It  has  no  theology  in  the  common 
meaning  of  the  word,  and  no  dogmas  that 
violate  reason  and  strangle  common-sense. 
It  is  a  religion,  not  for  Sabbath  and  holiday 
merely,  but  for  every  day.  It  has  not  one 
rule  of  conduct  for  the  priest,  and  one  for  the 
layman;  "just  weights,  just  measures,"  is 
its  law  for  all, — for  the  synagogue  as  well  as 
the  counting-house,  for  the  home,  the  shop, 
the  school,  the  forge.  Its  morality,  however, 
is  ethics  based  upon  Revelation ;  the  historic 
character  of  which  is  more  than  an  accepted 
doctrine  in  Judaism, — it  is  an  intuition, 
rather.  Judaism,  hence,  is  not  a  revelation 
of  ethics,  but  the  ethics  of  Revelation;  and 
a  similar  Jewish  intuition  is  the  belief  in  one 
incorporeal  Deity,  the  Creator  and  Ruler  of 
the  universe. 

2.  Judaism  is  a  religion  of  growth,  not 
stagnancy.  It  is  largely  a  development.  It 
has  had  its  periods  of  ebb  and  flow,  of  blossom 
and  apparent  decay.  Its  history  is  a  long- 


6  What  Is  Judaism? 

continued  conflict,  both  national  and  in- 
dividual. Jewish  thought  was  never  inert 
and  dormant.  It  is  an  egregious  blunder  to 
close  Jewish  history  with  Malachi,  and  with 
the  few  supplementary  names  and  incidents 
which  are  given  in  the  New  Testament 
narrative.  It  is,  perhaps,  only  after  the  Old 
Testament  Canon  was  closed  that  Judaism 
may  be  said  to  have  properly  begun.  Then 
arose  the  Talmud,  which  was  law-book  and 
literature,  digest  and  debates,  the  growth  of 
nearly  a  thousand  years,  which  preserved  the 
Jew  from  intellectual  torpor,  even  if  it  in- 
tensified Jewish  individualism.  In  its  study 
the  Jew  learned  to  think.  The  story  of  the 
Talmud  is  the  story  of  the  conflict  of  opin- 
ion, and  the  intellectual  wrestling  sharpened 
every  fibre  of  the  Jew.  To  its  folios  all 
parties  in  Judaism  have  appealed  for  argu- 
ments. Each  new  development,  each  change 
in  custom  and  ceremony,  takes  its  point  of 
departure  from  the  Talmud.  Every  reaction, 
every  attempt  to  restore  the  old  traditions, 
is  based  upon  the  Talmud.  And  thus  in  the 
eternal  battle  of  opposing  views,  which  never 
touches  the  essence  of  Judaism  but  its  out- 
ward form  and  raiment,  Judaism  has  never 


What  Is  Judaism?  7 

been  allowed  to  be  dormant.  It  has  usually 
reflected  the  spirit  of  its  age.  The  Jew  was 
a  rationalist  under  the  Caliphs.  He  was 
sternly  orthodox  in  the  shadow  of  the  Papacy. 
He  is  a  liberal  in  Germany,  a  conservative 
in  England.  Judaism  is  not  a  cast-iron 
creed.  It  has  shown  capacity  for  develop- 
ment since  the  priests  chanted  on  Zion's  hill, 
and  the  Essenes,  Pharisees,  and  Sadducees 
engaged  in  a  death-struggle  amid  the  dying 
embers  of  nationality. 

3.  Judaism  is  an  organic,  not  a  mechanical 
religion.  Its  strength  does  not  depend  upon  ec- 
clesiastical councils  and  discipline,  upon  duly 
appointed  synods  and  benefices,  upon  lavish 
endowments  and  costly  cathedrals,  but  rather 
upon  the  universal  consciousness  of  the  Jew 
—the  subtle,  indefinable  sense  of  unity 
through  the  long  travail  of  centuries.  This 
feeling  can  hardly  be  called  one  of  nation- 
ality, for  the  Jew  is  a  Frenchman  in  France, 
an  Englishman  in  England,  a  German 
in  Germany,  an  American  in  the  United 
States.  The  sentiment  is  remarkable  for  its 
permanence  and  universality,  and  has  been 
crystallised  in  the  Jewish  saying:  "All  Israel 
are  bondsmen  for  each  other."  The  syna- 


8  What  Is  Judaism? 

gogue,  too,  is  not  a  church  in  its  ecclesiastical 
sense.  It  is  a  congregation,  a  community, 
an  independent  society,  which  elects  its  own 
rabbi,  and  is  amenable  only  to  its  own  laws 
and  the  majority  vote  of  its  members  or 
trustees.  It  is  strictly  democratic.  The 
rabbi  is  only  the  spokesman  who  lectures  or 
preaches,  but  never  claims  special  privileges 
save  as  teacher  and  interpreter.  For  chari- 
table and  educational  purposes,  a  number  of 
congregations  may  unite,  but  ecclesiastical 
discipline  has  entirely  passed  into  abeyance 
in  America,  and  in  Europe  it  has  reached  its 
last  stage  of  usefulness.  There  is  no  outward 
band,  then,  that  holds  Judaism  together — 
its  strength  is  from  within.  And  that  is 
sufficient  for  its  ten  millions  of  adherents 
throughout  the  globe. 

4.  Judaism  is  a  religion  of  breadth.  Its 
ethical  standards  will  bear  the  test  of  the 
most  searching  modern  criticism.  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself,"  "Thou 
shalt  not  vex  the  stranger,"  are  characteristic 
texts.  "Who  shall  ascend  God's  holy  hill?" 
cries  the  psalmist.  "He  who  is  of  pure  heart 
and  clean  hands,"  is  the  answer.  Solomon's 
prayer  at  the  dedication  of  the  Temple  was 


What  Is  Judaism?  9 

universal,  and  not  tribal  only.  The  prophets 
do  not  confine  themselves  to  Jewry.  Nineveh 
is  as  near  to  God  as  Jerusalem.  The  Book  of 
Esther  is  admitted  into  the  Canon,  although 
the  name  of  God  is  absent.  The  Book  of 
Ruth  celebrates  the  virtues  of  a  non- Jewess, 
to  whom  David,  psalmist,  and  the  Lord's 
anointed,  was  to  trace  his  descent.  The 
rabbis  plainly  declare  that  the  pious  of  all 
nations  will  become  partakers  of  future  bliss, 
which  is  not  reserved  for  the  Jew.  Hence 
all  propaganda  is  avoided.  Judaism  is  not 
a  missionary  faith  in  the  current  meaning 
of  the  term.  It  sees  in  Christianity  and 
Mohammedanism  divine  agencies,  and  ad- 
mits freely  their  services  in  uprooting  idol- 
atry. It  does  not  compass  sea  and  land  to 
make  a  proselyte,  but  Jewish  traditional  law 
seems  to  discountenance  instead  of  encourag- 
ing conversions.  The  Jew  is  broad  in  his 
sympathies,  unsectarian  in  his  charities,  and 
whether  a  strict  conformist  or  not,  knows  no 
distinction  of  creed  for  humanity's  sake.  In 
view  of  the  suffering  he  has  had  to  endure 
from  the  narrowness  of  others,  the  Jew  can- 
not be  narrow.  It  is  not  so  long  ago  that  a 
rabbi  of  Frankfort,  Germany,  wrote  a  sym- 


io  What  Is  Judaism? 

pathetic  article  on  the  benefits  resulting  from 
Christian  missions.  Pulpit  interchange  be- 
tween Christian  and  Jewish  ministers  in 
America  is  by  no  means  uncommon.  Only  a 
fewyears  ago  a  Jewish  writer  pleaded  earnestly 
in  a  representative  Christian  weekly  for  an 
international  religious  conference  of  all  who 
believe  in  God,  virtue,  and  immortality.  The 
synagogue,  if  it  has  forms  and  customs  for 
the  Jew  to  which  history  has  given  sanction 
and  power,  has  only  love  and  warmth  for 
humanity,  the  highest  aspirations  for  human 
brotherhood.  Its  Deity  is  not  the  God  of 
Israel  only,  but  of  all  mankind. 

5.  Judaism  is  universal  in  its  scope  and 
influence.  Its  character  is  not  to  be  judged 
by  scattered  laws  and  customs,  but  by  its 
entire  aim  and  mission.  Its  morality,  which 
lights  up  Pentateuch,  prophets,  and  sacred 
writings,  and  shines  in  later  rabbinical  litera- 
ture, is  all-embracing,  and  its  tendency  is 
just  the  reverse  of  tribal.  Circumstance  has 
compelled  the  Jew  to  assume  often  the 
appearance  of  a  close  corporation  in  his 
polity,  religious  and  otherwise.  It  is  hardly 
reasonable  to  think  that  the  distinctive  age- 
marks  of  his  faith  will  entirely  pass  away, 


What  Is  Judaism?  n 

but  there  is  every  probability,  when  condi- 
tions are  more  propitious,  for  the  universal 
element  in  Judaism  to  become  a  more 
prominent  factor  in  the  world's  enlighten- 
ment. Thoughtful  American  Jewish  leaders 
no  longer  confine  themselves  to  the  syna- 
gogue. The  education  and  elevation  of  the 
masses  in  our  large  cities  will  be  regarded  as 
a  legitimate  working-field  for  enthusiastic 
and  capable  Hebrews.  The  territory  is 
widening  year  by  year ;  with  tact  and  energy 
a  profound  impression  for  good  can  be  made, 
without  interfering  with  the  prerogatives  of 
any  denomination.  It  is  true,  the  education 
and  Americanisation  of  Jewish  immigrants 
from  abroad  will  provide  a  good  deal  of  work 
for  the  Jew,  and  already  enlists  his  earnest 
and  active  sympathies.  But  apart  from  such 
home  missions,  which  he  is  not  likely  to  neg- 
lect, there  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not 
step  to  the  front  and  co-operate  in  the  task 
of  human  redemption  from  the  evils  of  pov- 
erty and  vice.  A  few  are  eminently  success- 
ful in  this  field.  There  is  earnest  call  for  more 
teachers  and  workers  in  the  engrossing  prob- 
lems of  every  great  city.  The  relations  of 
capital  and  labour  clamor  for  satisfactory 


12  What  Is  Judaism? 

solution.  Social  and  economic  reform,  im- 
proved housing  of  the  poor  and  working 
classes,  the  uplifting  of  the  people  to  higher 
ideals,  are  duties  of  the  hour;  and  of  all  men 
the  Jew  is  peculiarly  fitted  to  aid  in  their 
realisation.  He  is  happily  without  sectarian 
taint,  and  his  faculty  of  organisation,  so 
useful  in  commerce  and  trade,  would  here 
receive  marked  development. 

6.  Judaism  is  old  but  not  antiquated.  It 
is  not  a  sapling  of  a  year's  growth,  an  ism  of 
the  century,  a  fad  of  the  hour,  but  a  system 
which  dates  back  three  thousand  years, — a 
mighty  oak  whose  majestic  branches  are 
still  full  of  sap  and  vigour.  Its  buoyancy  has 
been  proved  by  the  vicissitudes  of  a  singu- 
larly varied  existence,  its  adaptability  has 
been  illustrated  by  every  fresh  migration  of 
the  Jew,  and  under  every  new  condition  of 
prosperity  or  serfdom.  Its  distinctive  forms, 
which  were  designed  for  the  Jew  only,  to 
extirpate  the  sin  of  idolatry  and  instil 
spirituality,  reverence,  the  domestic  virtues, 
and  thus  preserve  Jewish  vitality,  are  not 
necessarily  burdensome.  They  have  their 
compensations.  The  law  is  more  of  a  crown 
than  a  yoke;  and  if  later  rabbinical  enact- 


What  Is  Judaism?  13 

ments  have  considerably  increased  the  duties 
of  the  strict  conformist — no  compulsion  is 
ever  exercised  as  to  the  observance  of  the 
forms  of  Judaism,  and  full  liberty  is  given 
the  individual — the  tendency  has  always 
been  towards  their  simplification  and  adapta- 
tion. The  statutes  and  ordinances  in  their 
purity  are  powerful  reminders  of  the  divine, 
mute  but  eloquent  messengers,  leaves  and 
blossoms  that  beautify  and  brighten  each 
day's  monotonous  struggle  and  teach  the 
law  of  spiritual  manhood  reaching  towards 
perfection.  Jewish  customs  and  ceremonies, 
the  Sabbath,  the  festival,  the  prayer,  the 
rite,  are  heirlooms  which  have  been  tenderly 
and  faithfully  transmitted  from  generation  to 
generation.  While  time  works  its  inevitable 
changes,  enough  survives  from  age  to  age  to 
maintain  pristine  virtues  and  prove  spurs  to 
progress,  not  clogs  on  growth  and  develop- 
ment. 

History  tells  what  Judaism  was  in  the 
past.  Judaism  in  the  present  needs  only 
a  fair  field,  and  courts  no  favour.  The 
Judaism  of  the  future  is  not  an  unknown 
quantity;  for  if  it  be  true  to  itself  and 
the  best  utterances  of  sage  and  prophet, 


14  What  Is  Judaism? 

it  will  do  its  active  share  to  spread  the 
knowledge  of  God's  unity  and  the  broth- 
erhood of  humanity — the  Jewish  ideal  and 
mission. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  JEW  AND  THE  CURRENTS  OF  HIS  AGE 

HPHERE  are  few  more  popular  miscon- 
1  ceptions — which  have  spread,  too,  in 
ranks  that  claim  to  be  academic — than  the 
widely  accepted  opinion  of  Jewish  intel- 
lectual narrowness  and  self-complacency. 
Jewish  thought  in  the  long  sweep  of  cen- 
turies is  held  to  have  been  rigid,  exclusive, 
wholly  uninfluenced  by  the  currents  of  each 
age — as  fixed  and  unyielding  as  the  fabled 
statue  of  Memnon,  but  responsive  to  no 
melody  at  each  successive  sunrise  in  the 
world's  advance.  In  other  words,  it  is 
claimed  that  there  has  been  no  intellectual 
development,  in  its  proper  sense,  in  Jewry, 
that  sterile  and  rudimentary  conditions  have 
ever  prevailed,  and  its  Jericho  of  torpidity 
and  ecclesiasticism  has  refused  to  fall,  de- 
spite all  the  trumpet-calls  of  enlightenment. 
Now,  the  slow  rise  of  the  most  rational 
15 


1 6  What  Is  Judaism? 

opinions  is  a  disheartening  blow  to  the  over- 
ardent  lover  of  mankind.  Is  it  so  very  long 
since  it  was  stoutly  believed  that  heretics 
had  tails,  or  that  there  was  some  dim  con- 
nection between  a  Quaker's  conference  and  a 
rainy  sky?  The  popular  verdict  as  to  the 
Jew  shows  as  surprising  logic.  There  has 
been  nothing  too  absurd  to  say  about  him — 
a  privilege  he  shares  with  priests,  princes, 
women,  and  lawyers.  He  could  not  be  in 
better  company,  only  the  lash  cuts  deeper 
in  his  case  when  the  only  fact  exceptional 
about  him  has  been  the  treatment  he  has 
received  from  his  lords  and  masters,  as  if  he 
were  half  criminal,  half  clown. 

It  is  hardly  the  present  purpose  to  enter 
into  any  consideration  of  the  causes  and  con- 
ditions which  have  led  to  such  fallacies  of 
judgment.  Some  of  these,  doubtless,  can  be 
traced  to  the  Jew  himself,  to  his  tenacity  of 
belief  and  scorn  of  consequences.  An  un- 
compromising religionist  is  apt  to  arouse 
more  dislike  in  certain  minds  than  a  man  who 
is  a  "mush  of  concession."  Unconsciously, 
there  is  often  an  unlovely  aggressiveness  in 
your  man  of  resolute  faith,  especially  when 
his  tent  is  pitched  among  children  of  dark- 


The  Jewish  Characteristics       17 

ness.  If  this  has  been  the  Jew's  attitude,  he 
would  have  only  himself  to  blame  for  the 
burdens  which  he  has  borne.  But  just  as 
the  Ghetto  was  no  original  Jewish  creation, 
being  forced  upon  the  Jew  from  without  by 
conditions  beyond  his  wish  and  control, 
so  this  familiar  theory  of  an  intellectual 
Ghetto  with  its  accompaniments — its  disdain 
of  its  age,  its  contempt  of  any  vision  out- 
side of  the  synagogue,  its  limitless  self- 
satisfaction,  its  conceit  and  arrogance — 
this  view  which  dies  so  hard,  is  wholly 
un-Jewish  and  unhistorical. 

Forces,  it  is  true,  have  existed  in  Jewry, 
taking  their  cue  from  the  environment, 
which  from  time  to  time  have  striven  to 
produce  a  rigid  cast  of  thought  and  action, 
with  threats  of  the  ban,  if  not  the  thumb- 
screw, the  thunder,  if  not  the  lightning,  of 
church  tyranny.  There  is  little  doubt,  for 
example,  that  the  almost  contemporaneous 
condemnation  of  Descartes'  writings  by  the 
Synod  of  Dordrecht  was  largely  responsible 
for  the  excommunication  of  Spinoza  by  the 
Amsterdam  rabbinical  authorities.  Yet 
the  genius  of  the  Jew  as  reflected  in  the 
varied  activities  of  his  best  and  most  repre- 


1 8  What  Is  Judaism? 

sentative  thinkers,  from  the  era  of  Isaiah,  has 
sought  as  persistently  to  break  the  yoke,  to 
catch  a  wider  rift  in  God's  sky,  a  broader 
inspiration,  and  that  without  any  colour  of 
disloyalty  but  with  the  fullest  reverence  for 
the  ancient  religion. 

No  wonder  that  the  Exodus  has  been  re- 
garded as  Judaism's  most  significant  point 
of  departure,  its  most  distinctive  festival, 
for  it  has  served  as  the  very  keynote  of 
emancipation,  an  everlasting  spirit-call  for 
freedom,  even  in  centuries  when  serfdom  and 
degradation  were  among  the  inalienable 
privileges  of  man.  In  fact,  the  close  mantle 
which  apparently  he  delighted  to  wear  in 
certain  inflammable  eras  was  due  more  to 
the  instinct  of  self-preservation  than  to  any 
innate  exclusiveness.  It  is  not  narrowness 
of  view  to  guard  one's  home  against  infection. 
There  was  never  too  much  rose-water  atmos- 
phere in  court  and  camp. 

Although  conditions  thus  had  a  tendency 
to  keep  the  Jew  in  a  kind  of  quarantine, 
Jewish  thought  has  not  been  impervious  to 
external  influences.  There  has  been  a  steady 
interrelation  between  Jewish  and  non- Jewish 
streams  of  opinion,  points  of  contact  at 


The  Jewish  Characteristics       19 

certain  periods  of  profound  consequence  in 
the  history  of  civilisation.  The  Jewish  mind 
has  been  open  to  impressions,  it  has  recog- 
nised its  duty  to  its  age,  and  has  been  no 
laggard  in  the  work  of  human  advancement, 
in  which  its  interest  has  been  as  keen  and 
impassioned  as  it  is  to-day. 

An  early,  and  in  many  respects  a  classic, 
example  of  the  readiness  of  the  Jew  to  widen 
his  horizon  is  afforded  by  the  story  of  Philo 
and  the  Alexandrian  school.  When  Alex- 
ander founded  his  famous  city  (332  B.C.),  a 
Jewish  colony  was  among  the  earliest  settlers, 
and  it  did  not  take  them  many  years  to 
become  so  influenced  by  their  environment 
as  to  write  Greek  with  the  fluency  of  an 
Athenian.  In  the  more  or  less  favourable 
conditions  that  prevailed  for  a  considerable 
period  under  Alexander's  immediate  suc- 
cessors, they  were  Greek  citizens  without 
losing  their  religious  identity.  Soon  there 
sprang  up  among  them  a  school  of  writers, 
poets,  dramatists,  historians,  who  were  not 
the  least  eminent  leaders  in  literature  and 
philosophy.  Philo  may  be  taken  as  the 
typical  thinker  of  his  time,  and  he  is  always 
termed  Philo  Judaeus.  Greek  was  then 


f 

20  What  Is  Judaism? 

largely  the  vernacular  of  the  synagogue, 
and  Homer,  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  the  Stoics 
were  as  much  read  by  young  Israel  as  the 
Pentateuch,  the  Psalms,  the  Prophets  of 
Judaea. 

Philo,  about  whose  life  only  scanty  details 
are  preserved,  could  not  have  been  a  more 
loyal  Jew,  with  greater  reverence  for  his 
religion  and  firmer  attachment  to  his  special 
community,  in  whose  defence  he  participated 
in  an  embassy  to  Rome.  Yet  he  was  broad 
enough  to  see  goodness  elsewhere,  and  he 
strove  to  fuse  the  wisdom  of  the  Greek  with 
the  faith  of  the  Hebrew,  not  from  any  desire 
to  abandon  his  traditions,  but  to  show  their 
adaptability  in  a  cultured  age.  Whether  his 
system  of  allegory  was  a  success  or  not,  and 
whether  his  philosophy  was  accepted  or  not 
by  his  brethren  in  the  flesh,  these  are  in- 
quiries absolutely  secondary  to  the  main 
issue — that  a  man  like  Philo,  with  his 
character,  training,  and  standing  could  feel 
the  necessity  of  reconciling  his  faith  with 
current  tendencies  without  being  less  a  Jew. 
That  he  was  rejected  by  his  people,  who 
preferred  the  interpretation  of  Palestine  to 
that  of  Athens  or  Alexandria,  and  that  his 


The  Jewish  Characteristics       21 

writings  owe  their  preservation  to  the  Christ- 
ian Fathers,  with  undoubted  influence  on 
the  early  theology  of  the  Church,  do  not 
invalidate  the  position  assumed.  Certainly 
the  point  of  contact  in  those  centuries  might 
have  led  to  far-reaching  consequences,  if 
Roman  supremacy  had  not  precipitated  a 
catastrophe  which  scattered  philosophy  to 
the  winds  and  made  the  Jew  only  draw  his 
cloak  closer  around  him. 

A  no  less  suggestive  cross-fertilisation  of 
ideas  took  place  in  Spain  when  the  caliphs 
founded  their  schools  and  gave  such  a  marked 
impetus  to  the  advancement  of  knowledge. 
Here  the  receptivity  of  the  Jewish  mind,  its 
plastic  character,  its  readiness  to  unfold  and 
expand  in  a  genial  atmosphere,  could  not 
have  been  more  superbly  and  convincingly 
illustrated.  Long  ages  of  devotion  to  study, 
which  began  in  the  home  circle  as  the  young 
child  was  taught  the  meaning  of  his  religion 
and  its  symbols, — "Thou  shalt  teach  them 
diligently  to  thy  children!"  reads  the  olden 
command, — this  has  predisposed  him  to  the 
pursuit  of  learning.  Under  the  Moslem  ruler, 
and  later  under  the  Christian  kings  until  the 
era  of  relentless  persecutions  changed  the 


22  What  Is  Judaism? 

scholar's  pen  into  the  pilgrim's  staff,  a  dis- 
tinguished coterie  of  thinkers  were  spurred 
on  to  independent  research,  and  Arabic,  in 
turn,  became  in  a  measure  the  synagogue's 
vernacular,  while  Jewish  writers  competed 
ardently  with  their  Moslem  contemporaries 
in  literary  skill. 

It  is  beyond  our  present  scope  to  allude  to 
the  Jew's  versatility,  which  made  him  now  a 
caliph's  grand  vizier,  now  a  translator  into 
Arabic  of  priceless  works,  as  well  as  merchant, 
scientist,  trader.  To  restrict  one's  self  to 
the  field  of  religious  philosophical  thought 
in  particular,  the  point  of  contact  was 
marked.  So  keen  was  the  rivalry,  so  sus- 
ceptible the  Jewish  mind,  that,  to  quote  the 
words  of  the  late  Professor  David  Kaufmann, 
of  Budapest,  in  some  respects  the  most 
erudite  writer  in  his  line  for  many  decades, 
"Every  more  important  achievement  in  the 
domain  of  Arabic  philosophy  was  noticed, 
examined,  utilised  by  Jews;  the  appearance 
of  a  new  Arabic  work  was  usually  followed 
by  its  Jewish  imitator."  Although  Dr. 
Kaufmann  insists  that  this  imitativeness 
does  not  imply  slavish  dependence,  it  shows 
none  the  less  an  intellectual  openness  in  the 


The  Jewish  Characteristics      23 

most  important  of  all  branches  to  the  Jew — 
that  of  religious  philosophy. 

The  men,  too,  who  were  influenced  so 
markedly  by  current  thought  were  the  sweet 
singers  of  the  synagogue — poets  and  moral- 
ists of  the  stamp  of  Gabirol  and  Judah 
Halle  vi,  esteemed  the  glory  of  mediaeval 
Israel.  Nor  did  they  lose  aught  of  fame. 
Their  works  are  still  retained  in  the  tradi- 
tional ritual  and  on  the  solemn  days,  so 
broad  after  all  is  the  synagogue,  which  took 
its  cue  from  the  sages  who  formed  the  Old 
Testament  Canon.  These  included  the  Song 
of  Songs  as  well  as  the  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes 
as  well  as  the  Psalms,  as  if  they  meant  to 
symbolise  the  light  and  shade,  the  joy  and 
sorrow  in  human  existence,  in  the  composite 
character  of  the  Biblical  books. 

It  is  Maimonides  (born  at  Cordova,  1137; 
died  at  Cairo,  1204)  who  presents,  perhaps, 
the  most  salient  example  of  Jewish  adaptive- 
ness  in  those  centuries.  He  was  the  "eagle 
of  the  synagogue,"  the  sage  par  excellence, 
of  vast  industry  and  extensive  knowledge, 
judging  from  his  exhaustive  works.  Yet  this 
scholar  of  scholars,  this  profound  rabbinical 
authority,  whose  condensed  creed  of  Juda- 


24  What  Is  Judaism? 

ism,  termed  "  The  Thirteen  Principles,"  is 
accepted  practically  throughout  the  Jewish 
world,  exclusive  of  some  American  congre- 
gations, this  man  of  all  men  set  himself  the 
task  of  reconciling  revealed  religion  and 
Greek-Arabic  philosophy.  In  other  words, 
he  saw  the  necessity  of  harmonising  the  old 
and  the  new,  and  deemed  current  tendencies 
serious  and  divine  enough  to  impel  him  to 
write  his  famous  Guide  of  the  Perplexed.  This 
work,  originally  in  Arabic,  but  now  translated 
into  various  tongues,  left  its  distinct  mark  on 
contemporary  thought,  furnishing  ideas  to 
later  ages,  from  the  Schoolmen  to  Spinoza. 

Here,  too,  the  main  question  is  not  whether 
this  work  is  still  of  service,  or  whether  its 
standpoint  is  hopelessly  antiquated,  with  the 
disappearance  of  Aristotelianism  in  modern 
philosophy.  The  real  fact  for  consideration 
is  that  a  Jewish  authority  like  Maimonides 
freely  absorbed  the  views  of  his  age,  and  was 
broad  and  open  enough  to  attempt  to  recon- 
cile current  thought  with  his  traditional 
faith, — Aristotle  and  Moses.  It  is  true,  his 
work  was  regarded  as  heretical  by  a  few 
prominent  rabbis,  and  his  adherents  and 
opponents  in  later  years  had  sharp  feuds  of 


The  Jewish  Characteristics       25 

their  own.  But  he  had  written  his  book  and 
given  an  example  to  his  people,  even  if,  like 
other  thinkers  of  other  climes  and  creeds,  he 
was  a  solitary  peak  above  the  plain.  Yet  he 
was  not  entirely  alone — there  were  other 
minds  that  absorbed  as  keenly.  Then  came 
the  ravages  of  the  Black  Death  and  shameless 
persecutions,  which  again  robbed  the  philo- 
sopher of  his  calm  idealism,  and  made  the 
Jew  once  more  a  helpless  wanderer. 

The  Renaissance  movement,  with  the 
spread  of  Humanism,  was  welcomed  by  the 
Jew  as  marking  almost  as  Messianic  an  era 
as  the  French  Revolution  and  the  century 
of  emancipation  in  its  train.  Here  the  point 
of  contact  was  peculiar,  for,  instead  of 
opposing  the  new  ideas  and  ideals,  he  met 
them  half -way  and  gladly  opened  his  treasures 
of  learning  to  advance  their  growth.  That 
was  none  the  less  a  period  of  cruel  repression, 
and  the  exiles  from  Spain  found  it  hard  to 
gain  a  safe  foothold  anywhere  in  Europe. 
Yet  the  Jew  could  not  have  been  more 
responsive  to  the  currents  of  his  time  when 
a  Reuchlin  could  become  his  pupil  in  Hebrew, 
and  the  disciples  of  Elias  Levita  could  intro- 
duce Hebrew  studies  into  Germany.  Elias 


26  What  Is  Judaism? 

del  Medigo  was  not  averse  to  being  selected  as 
umpire  by  warring  factions  in  the  University 
of  Padua,  while  other  Jewish  teachers  at  the 
universities  gave  freely  of  their  wisdom  as 
their  highest  duty  towards  their  age. 

The  Jew  was  to  be  borne  swiftly  along  the 
stream  of  a  movement  which  was  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  Reformation.  He  might  have 
been  excused  had  he  held  aloof,  but  his 
passion  for  knowledge  must  have  vent.  He 
became  poet, — Immanuel  of  Rome  was  a 
friend  of  Dante, — philosopher,  astronomer, 
mathematician,  in  his  enthusiasm.  He  gained 
fresh  courage  in  the  new  atmosphere,  and 
accompanied  Columbus  on  his  voyage, 
Vasco  da  Gama  on  his  distant  quest.  He  was 
among  the  earliest  to  see  the  possibilities  of 
the  printing-press,  which  was  to  spread  also 
his  literature,  never  designed  to  be  a  sealed 
book,  but  whose  study  was  his  highest  duty. 
He  could  develop,  too,  into  an  ambassador 
from  Turkey  to  the  Venetian  republic.  In 
the  flourishing  mercantile  states  of  mediaeval 
Italy  he  could  play  an  active  role,  and  his 
sphere  was  not  restricted  to  finance  but 
extended  to  the  handicrafts  as  well.  He  was 
quick  to  utilise  every  invention  and  to  pro- 


The  Jewish  Characteristics      27 

mote  every  industry,  whenever  the  political 
laws  allowed  his  freedom  of  choice  and  some 
certainty  of  tenure,  and  did  not  limit  his 
vision  to  old  clothes  and  the  junk-shop. 

No  religious  scruple  stood  in  the  way,  nor 
any  traditional  barrier  to  prevent  his  im- 
parting knowledge  to  the  stranger  without 
the  gates,  for  he  recalled  the  treasured 
opinion  of  one  of  his  early  fathers:  "A  non- 
Israelite  who  occupies  himself  with  the  law 
of  God  stands  in  the  same  rank  as  the  high 
priest."  No  wonder  Reuchlin's  heart  could 
go  out  to  his  teachers  as  he  defended  Hebrew 
literature  from  the  malice  of  the  obscurant- 
ists. So  close,  then,  was  the  connection 
between  the  era  preparatory  to  the  Refor- 
mation and  the  teachers  of  the  Humanists, 
without  whose  pioneer  work,  perhaps,  Luther 
might  have  less  signally  triumphed. 

These  instances  of  Jewish  participation  in 
the  great  movements  of  history  might  readily 
be  extended,  and  it  might  easily  be  shown 
how  the  activity  spread  to  other  lines  besides 
religious  thought,  as  can  be  observed  to-day 
in  every  civilised  land.  If  the  objection  is 
interposed  that  the  illustrations  are  individ- 
ual and  cannot  be  regarded  as  characteristic 


28  What  Is  Judaism? 

of  the  race,  one  might  as  well  deny  to  Isaiah, 
to  Micah,  to  the  Psalmist,  the  claim  of  being 
Jewish  and  representative  of  Jewish  thought. 
To  have  produced  such  broad  genius,  such 
impressionable  minds,  there  must  have  been 
always  a  central  fire  in  the  heart  of  the  Jewish 
race  which  leaped  upward  exultantly  when 
the  moment  was  propitious, — a  storehouse 
of  sympathy  for  humanity  in  its  widest  sense, 
and  for  human  progress,  which  could  be 
utilised  by  prophet  or  sage. 

Among  truly  typical  thinkers  there  was 
ever  cherished  a  larger  hope,  a  wider  inspira- 
tion, which  was  not  the  idle  cry  of  a  child  for 
a  star  but  the  deep  impassioned  yearning  for 
human  perfection  and  universal  brotherhood 
as  the  goal  to  which  law  and  statute,  symbol 
and  ceremony  pointed.  How  pitiful  that 
outside  pressure,  unrighteous  conditions  in 
church  and  state,  have  made  the  Jew's 
history  a  continuous  tragedy  and  maimed 
him  at  times  almost  beyond  recognition,  so 
that  often  the  caricature  was  taken  for 
reality.  Yet  the  miracle  of  resurrection  was 
ever  there,  the  blossom  beneath  the  snow, 
the  love  of  humanity  which  was  unconquer- 
able under  every  affliction.  In  the  world's 


The  Jewish  Characteristics      29 

welfare  he  read  and  felt  his  own  welfare.  He 
knew  he  would  not  wear  for  ever  his  gaber- 
dine. He  could  bide  his  time.  The  day  must 
break,  the  shadows  pass  away.  The  sword 
would  change  into  the  plough-share,  the 
bitter  taunt  into  brotherly  love.  Let  suffer- 
ing be  the  badge  of  the  tribe — 

Till  the  world  is  wrought 
To  sympathy  with  hopes  and  fears  it  heeded  not. 

What  of  the  relation  of  the  Jew  to  American 
life  and  ideals?  Here  his  plastic  quality  has 
been  illustrated  in  the  work  of  representative 
men  and  women  in  every  epoch,  from  the 
Colonial  through  that  of  the  Revolution,  and 
in  the  Civil  and  Spanish-American  Wars. 
There  is  something  divine  in  the  American  at- 
mosphere, which  causes  Old- World  rancours 
and  prejudices  to  weaken  and  lose  much  of 
their  keen  edge  under  its  influence.  In  the 
demands  of  American  life,  in  the  strain  and 
spur  of  competition,  with  the  closer  contact 
enforced  by  school  and  shop,  mill  and  factory, 
the  creeds,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  are 
affected  as  never  before,  and  the  Jew,  like 
the  rest,  is  broadened  by  his  environment. 
He  enters  gladly  into  the  currents  of  his  time 


30  What  Is  Judaism? 

— whether  he  becomes  a  pioneer  in  Alaska  or 
an  up-builder  in  California,  as  he  rears  his 
department  store  in  the  great  cities  or  plans 
his  philanthropies  without  distinction  of 
creed.  He  upholds  the  new  education,  is 
among  the  investigators  in  science,  defends 
the  public  schools,  is  active  in  movements  for 
civic  betterment,  and  whether  Democrat  or 
Republican,  feels  the  stir  of  his  age.  He  is 
as  proud  of  his  Americanism  as  are  the  little 
children  of  the  emigrant  in  the  intoxication 
of  their  first  flag-drill.  Patriotism  is  to  the 
American  Jew  a  part  of  his  religion,  as  was 
shown  in  the  days  of  '76  and  '61,  and  in  the 
recent  war  with  Spain,  when  even  the  Rough 
Riders  had  their  Jewish  quota. 

Nor  is  the  Jew  less  in  touch  with  American 
ideals;  they  sound  curiously  familiar,  for  did 
not  his  fathers  hear  the  slogan  of  old,— 
"proclaim  liberty  throughout  the  land  and  to 
all  the  inhabitants  thereof"?  America  spells 
freedom  under  the  law,  as  does  Judaism.  The 
American  ethical  standards  are  the  old- 
fashioned  ones  of  justice  and  morality,  public 
and  private  virtue,  even  if  these  for  the  time 
are  somewhat  obscured  by  prevalent  graft 
and  greed.  And  has  not  Theodore  Roosevelt 


The  Jewish  Characteristics       31 

been  termed  a  later  Hebrew  prophet?  Why 
should  not  the  American  Jew  be  at  one  with 
his  country  and  its  ideals,  and  be  aroused  to 
his  best  as  the  years  advance?  No  Ghetto 
has  stained  the  American  soil;  no  foul 
bigotry  to  deny  the  Jew  the  rights  of  man. 
He  will  be  spurred  on  to  breadth  in  life  and 
thought,  in  sympathies  and  achievement. 
To-day  America  means  more  to  the  Jew  than 
to  any  one  else,  for  it  is  the  only  land  that 
opens  wide  its  gates  to  the  persecuted  and 
the  down-trodden.  He  and  his  children  can 
never  forget  their  obligation  in  return,  as 
loyally,  modestly,  and  helpfully  they  do 
their  part  in  realising  the  ideals  of  our 
Republic. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  JEW   IN   THE   UNITED  STATES 

THE  buoyancy  and  vitality  of  the  Jewish 
people  and  their  religion  have  stood  the 
test  of  a  long  series  of  migrations  from  early 
Biblical  times  to  the  present  exodus  from 
Russia  and  Roumania.  Sudden  and  violent 
changes  which  have  sounded  the  death-knell 
of  many  races  and  religions,  or  have  fused 
and  cross-fertilised  them  beyond  recognition, 
seem  only  to  have  vitalised  the  Jew.  As  his 
faith  was  to  be  universalised,  so  his  people 
were  to  be  scattered  from  land  to  land,  from 
East  to  West, — the  divine  method  of  pre- 
venting any  relapse  into  the  Bedouin  stage 
of  development,  with  Judaism,  not  tribalism, 
his  religion. 

Such  migrations  of  varying  magnitude  in 

the  past,  from  Palestine  to  Babylonia,  Persia, 

Egypt,  and  Asia  Minor;  from  the  Orient  to 

Italy,    Spain,    and    Central    Europe,    have 

32 


The  Jew  in  the  United  States     33 

occurred  at  critical  periods,  and  were  rarely 
voluntary  but  usually  compulsory.  There 
was  generally  no  alternative  between  exile 
and  death,  apostasy  and  degradation.  Then, 
as  now,  the  Jew  preferred  the  pilgrim's  staff, 
the  wanderer  among  the  nations;  and 
whether  by  the  Guadalquivir  or  the  Danube, 
in  the  dense  forests  of  Germany  or  in  the 
fertile  plains  of  Italy,  the  people  remained 
on  the  whole  faithful  to  their  traditions. 
Bible  and  Talmud  kept  them  from  becoming 
gypsies.  Wherever  they  breathed  the  atmos- 
phere of  comparative  freedom,  they  adapted 
themselves  so  thoroughly  to  each  new  en- 
vironment that  they  added  many  a  brilliant 
name  to  the  science,  philosophy,  poetry,  and 
statecraft  of  their  day.  And,  glad  at  heart, 
they  cherished  the  older  prophets'  dream  of 
a  golden  age  of  peace  and  brotherhood  for 
mankind — a  dream  which  was  never  wholly 
shattered  even  in  the  agonies  of  an  auto  dafe. 
It  is  now  250  years  since  the  beginnings  of 
what  is  likely  to  prove  the  most  momentous 
migration  in  Jewish  history  occurred  on 
American  soil.  It  is  not  surprising  that  such 
an  event  should  have  suggested  the  idea  of  a 
general  celebration  among  the  Jews  of  the 


34  What  Is  Judaism? 

United  States.  But,  properly  to  understand 
the  real  significance  of  the  first  Jewish 
arrivals  at  New  Amsterdam  towards  the  end 
of  1654,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  causes 
that  led  to  their  settlement  and  the  circum- 
stances which  made  it  absolutely  imperative 
for  the  Jew  to  seek  a  new  home  and  a  new 
opportunity.  When  the  Old  World  offered 
no  hope  and  little  security  or  permanency, 
a  New  World  was  at  hand  for  him  and  all  who 
demand  liberty  as  the  first  condition  of 
existence. 

On  August  2,  1492,  the  great  majority  of 
the  Jews  of  Spain  were  expelled,  and  after 
a  brief  stay  in  Portugal  were  scattered  like 
criminals  and  outcasts  among  the  nations. 
The  act  of  expulsion  was  the  culmination  of 
a  series  of  oppressions  which  ended  their  golden 
era  in  Spain  in  a  night  of  unexampled  horror. 
Turkey,  Palestine,  Venice,  Poland,  and  Hol- 
land received  the  fugitives,  who  were  long  to 
feel  the  hand  of  their  enemies  even  in  apparent 
security.  Thousands,  however,  still  remained 
in  Spain  and  Portugal  who  continued  at  heart 
Jews  and  secretly  observed  their  ancestral  cus- 
toms, although  outwardly  they  were  good 
Catholics  and  leaders  in  church  and  state. 


The  Jew  in  the  United  States     35 

A  day  after  the  exile  from  Spain — one  of 
those  curious  coincidences  which  occur  so 
frequently  in  history  as  to  be  termed  "provi- 
dential"— Columbus  set  sail  from  Palos  on 
his  first  eventful  voyage.  The  close  con- 
nection between  the  Jews  and  the  discovery 
of  America  has  now  fairly  been  proved.  It 
is  known  that  several  men  of  Jewish  birth 
accompanied  the  Genoese,  among  them  Luis 
de  Torres,  his  interpreter;  while  his  Jewish 
patron,  Santangel,  received  from  Columbus 
the  first  account  of  his  discovery.  Not  only 
did  astronomical  works  and  scientific  instru- 
ments prepared  by  Jews  assist  him  greatly, 
but  it  was  men  of  Jewish  descent  who  finally 
succeeded  in  securing  for  him  Queen  Isa- 
bella's favour.  In  addition,  the  confiscated 
property  of  the  unfortunate  Jews  was  utilised 
for  the  expenses  of  the  second  voyage  of 
Columbus.  It  was  only  historic  justice, 
therefore,  that  America  in  later  centuries 
should  prove  a  welcome  abiding-place  for  the 
Jewish  people,  and  that  the  very  steps  which 
Spain  took  for  their  extermination  should 
have  paved  the  way  for  their  signal  pros- 
perity— not  the  first  time  in  history  that  an 
old-fashioned  Biblical  sentence  should  have 


36  What  Is  Judaism? 

been  verified,  nor  the  first  weapon  forged 
against  the  Jew  which  has  failed  to  achieve 
its  purpose. 

The  first  Jewish  settler  on  North-American 
soil,  whose  name  has  been  preserved,  arrived 
at  New  Amsterdam  on  July  8,  1654,  followed 
later  in  the  same  year  by  a  storm-tossed  party 
of  twenty- three,  presumably  from  Brazil, 
which  country  had  shared  with  Mexico,  Peru, 
Surinam,  and  the  West  Indies  in  the  era  of 
colonial  expansion  after  the  discovery  of 
America.  Brazil,  however,  had  proved  an 
undesirable  home  after  the  Portuguese  had 
wrested  it  in  1654  from  the  Dutch,  and 
allowed  the  spirit  of  the  Inquisition  full 
sway.  Many  of  the  residents  returned  to 
Holland  or  set  sail  for  the  French  settlements 
and  elsewhere  in  the  West  Indies;  but  others 
turned  hopefully  to  New  Amsterdam,  which, 
with  its  Dutch  masters,  gave  promise  of 
happier  days.  How  Peter  Stuyvesant  re- 
ceived them  harshly,  how  he  threatened 
their  exclusion,  how  the  Dutch  West  India 
Company  directed  him  to  grant  them  liberty 
to  remain  and  trade,  how  gradually  they 
grew  in  numbers  and  importance,  how  they 
obtained  under  English  rule  a  larger  share  of 


The  Jew  in  the  United  States     37 

civil  and  religious  freedom  and  were,  with 
some  exceptions,  stout  patriots  in  1776, 
closing  their  synagogue  when  the  British  held 
New  York, — these  incidents  form  but  the 
introductory  chapter  to  the  development  of 
the  community  after  1812,  when  it  began  to 
furnish  noteworthy  names  in  the  professions, 
in  finance,  and  in  trade.  The  list  was  largely 
increased  with  the  decades  before  and  after 
the  Civil  War,  when  its  synagogues  and 
benevolent  institutions  assumed  statelier 
proportions.  Hither  came,  in  swift  succes- 
sion, all  branches  of  the  Jewish  stock  from  the 
West  Indies,  Germany,  Poland,  Hungary, 
Roumania,  and  Russia,  until  now  the  small 
band  of  luckless  refugees  who  had  to  endure 
a  full  measure  of  Stuyvesant's  wrath  in  1654 
have  grown  into  a  population  of  a  million 
and  more  and  are  a  vital  factor  in  New 
York's  greatness. 

The  Jews  were  not  slow  to  settle  in  other 
parts  of  the  United  States.  In  1655,  some 
went  to  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  from  New 
Amsterdam,  to  seek  a  more  genial  atmos- 
phere; and  their  numbers  were  increased  by 
the  friendly  attitude  of  Roger  Williams's 
commonwealth.  A  century  later,  the  com- 


38  What  Is  Judaism? 

munity  was  to  become  the  most  prosperous 
in  the  land,  with  merchants  of  standing  who 
made  Newport  the  commercial  capital  years 
before  New  York  assumed  that  dignity.  The 
Touro  synagogue  and  cemetery,  the  Lopez 
wharf,  are  reminders  of  old-time  Jewish 
prominence  and  leadership  in  lines  of  in- 
dustry. Philadelphia  traces  its  earliest  Jew- 
ish settler  to  1703;  its  community  kept  pace 
with  the  general  growth  and  supplied  its 
quota  of  eminent  names  in  science,  educa- 
tion, and  philanthropy. 

In  the  South,  the  Jewish  pioneers  came 
early.  They  reached  Georgia  soon  after 
Oglethorpe  had  founded  the  colony  and  were 
admitted  as  settlers  in  1733.  Like  their 
brethren  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  they 
were  resolute  patriots  in  the  Revolution; 
while,  in  South  Carolina,  Francis  Salvador 
died  too  early  to  participate  in  the  struggle, 
but  was  of  the  same  patriotic  type  as  Haym 
Salomon,  who  so  powerfully  aided  in  main- 
taining the  Republic's  credit,  and  upon  whose 
favour  James  Madison  called  himself  a  pen- 
sioner; G.  M.  Seixas,  the  "patriot  minister" 
of  New  York;  Barnard  and  Michael  Gratz 
of  Philadelphia,  stanch  in  their  patriotism; 


The  Jew  in  the  United  States     39 

and  others  of  their  calibre  who  rallied  in 
defence  of  American  freedom. 

The  energy,  persistence,  and  public  spirit 
which  marked  the  Jewish  pioneers  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  when 
they  participated  in  the  activities  of  colonial 
times  and  contributed  their  share  in  the  early 
decades  of  the  Republic,  were  similarly  dis- 
played by  their  successors  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  They  were  among  the  settlers  when 
the  Ohio  Valley  was  to  be  changed  into  busy 
cities  and  when  Texas,  California,  and  Oregon 
were  to  be  admitted  to  Statehood.  In  the 
early  development  of  Texas  they  took  part  in 
comparatively  large  numbers,  both  in  the  field 
and  the  halls  of  legislation,  and  Galveston 
recalls  some  of  them  in  grateful  memory. 
Among  the  eager  gold-seekers  in  California, 
not  many  years  passed  before  they  became 
prominent  in  law,  medicine,  art,  finance,  and 
trade;  while  the  Alaska  seal-fisheries  and 
mineral  resources,  the  coal-fields  of  the  North- 
west and  Canada,  were  to  a  great  extent 
developed  by  the  genius  for  enterprise  of  the 
California  Jews.  Perhaps  in  no  single  State 
in  so  short  a  time  can  so  many  notable  names 
be  mentioned  in  varied  lines  of  usefulness. 


40  What  Is  Judaism  ? 

A  similar  activity  was  shown  in  Oregon, 
where,  despite  the  limited  Jewish  popula- 
tion, national  and  state  positions  have  been 
filled  by  the  pioneers  and  their  successors. 

From  this  necessarily  brief  summary  one 
fact  is  clear — that  the  genial  American 
atmosphere,  in  which  all  creeds  and  nation- 
alities so  wondrously  flourish,  has  been  dis- 
tinctly favourable  to  the  Jew's  advancement. 
Think  how  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  Bap- 
tists, and  Methodists  have  gained  in  num- 
bers, wealth,  and  prestige  on  American  soil 
in  the  past  hundred  years.  Such  conditions, 
however,  are  peculiarly  stimulating  to  the 
Israelite,  who  is  only  emerging  from  practical 
serfdom  and  repression  in  nearly  every  land, 
and  who  now,  for  the  first  time  in  centuries 
on  so  large  a  scale,  is  enabled  to  show  his 
versatility,  strength,  ability,  and  character. 
He  is  practically  unlimited  in  ambition  and 
scope — with  every  profession  and  pursuit 
open  to  him.  He  is  thus  completely  identified 
with  his  American  environment,  differing  in 
no  way  from  his  non- Jewish  neighbour,  save 
in  religious  belief.  He  resents  being  singled 
out  as  peculiar  or  un-American,  if  thereby 
it  is  inferred  that  he  is  an  alien.  Judaism  is 


The  Jew  in  the  United  States     41 

as  much  at  home  in  America  as  is  Christian- 
ity; it  is  neither  an  anachronism  nor  a  fossil. 
What  are  the  Jew's  lines  of  occupation? 
He  is  active  in  business;  he  succeeds  or  fails 
according  to  his  abilities.  He  enters  every 
profession,  is  architect  as  well  as  plumber,  is 
machinist,  inventor,  engineer,  as  well  as 
merchant,  lawyer,  broker,  peddler,  drummer, 
or  wage-earner  in  the  sweat-shops.  He  can 
own  mines  or  build  theatres,  run  a  ranch  or  a 
hotel.  He  can  graduate  from  West  Point  or 
Annapolis,  be  painter  or  sculptor,  financier 
or  steamboat  captain,  motorman  or  police- 
man, steeple-jack  or  street-musician.  He  is 
emphatically  no  multi-millionaire,  as  some 
Baptists  are,  nor  can  it  be  said  of  him,  as 
was  stated  a  few  years  ago  of  Presbyterians, 
that  sixteen  prominent  bank  and  trust  com- 
pany presidents  in  New  York  City  were  of 
that  church  and  in  good  standing.  His 
wealth  is  absurdly  overrated:  doubtless  the 
proverb  "as  rich  as  a  Jew"  has  much  to 
answer  for.  Great  masses  of  his  people,  not 
recent  accessions  exclusively,  live  from  hand 
to  mouth.  A  glance  at  the  records  of  Jewish 
charitable  societies  in  the  large  cities  would 
show  how  widespread  is  Jewish  poverty.  He 


42  What  Is  Judaism? 

has  his  millionaires,  it  is  true,  in  New  York, 
Chicago,  Philadelphia,  San  Francisco,  but 
the  number  is  very  limited.  Moderate 
fortunes,  due  to  thrift  and  enterprise,  are 
more  common;  but  even  these  are  not  so 
numerous  as  is  popularly  supposed.  It  was 
easier  to  disprove  the  notion  that  heretics 
had  tails  than  that  all  Jews  are  rich. 

What  have  been  the  Jew's  contributions 
to  the  United  States?  The  United  States 
receives  various  benefits  from  the  creeds  and 
classes  that  seek  its  shores;  it  is  influenced 
by  all  hi  varied  fashion,  from  the  days  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  in  New  England  to  the  era 
of  Italian  and  Russian  immigration  at  New 
York.  What  characteristics  have  been  most 
promising  in  the  Jew's  record  of  250  years? 
What  traits  most  positive  for  good? 

First,  his  spirit  of  enterprise.  It  is  this 
quality  which  placed  him  among  the  pioneers 
in  the  East  and  West,  as  trader  and  producer, 
developing  new  lines  of  industry  or  perfect- 
ing the  old,  and  adding  immensely  to  the 
aggregate  of  America's  wealth.  Ambitious, 
persistent,  and  undaunted  by  circumstance, 
he  developed  from  small  beginnings  to  at- 
tain remarkable  success.  Restless  ambition 


The  Jew  in  the  United  States     43 

spurred  him  to  fresh  endeavour  until  the  goal 
was  reached  and  fortune  won.  Hardly  a 
town  in  the  United  States  but  bears  witness 
to  his  activity,  particularly  in  lines  which  are 
capable  of  wide  extension.  He  has  developed 
the  little  notions-counter  into  the  department 
store,  for  example,  with  a  completeness  that 
would  have  been  incredible  a  few  decades  ago. 
Second,  his  breadth  of  view.  The  repre- 
sentative American  Jew  is  never  a  bigot — he 
respects  his  neighbour's  faith  and  usually 
gives  to  charities  without  distinction  of 
creed,  in  the  spirit  of  Adolph  Hallgarten, 
whose  bequests  to  institutions  of  various 
creeds  included  our  coloured  brethren.  He 
is  quick  to  meet  his  neighbour  on  common 
ground,  so  broadening  in  our  time;  and  on 
Thanksgiving  Day  and  other  occasions  he  is 
glad  to  welcome  his  Christian  brother  to  his 
pulpit.  In  periods  of  stress,  as  in  the  Pater- 
son  fire  of  1902,  the  synagogue  is  opened 
cordially  to  the  church  without  thought  of 
payment,  even  for  an  occupancy  of  several 
years.  He  recognises  his  new  environment 
and  has  outgrown  the  Ghetto  point  of  view, 
at  whatever  cost  to  cherished  traditions.  He 
is  quick  to  adopt  in  education  and  charity  the 


44  What  Is  Judaism? 

best  modern  methods,  and  joins  cheerfully 
in  movements  for  social  reform  and  civic 
progress.  Judaism  is  to  him  a  broad  uni- 
versalism,  which  demands  active  participa- 
tion in  the  life  of  the  day — a  looking  forward 
and  not  backward. 

Third,  his  patriotism.  The  Jew  is  in- 
tensely an  American.  His  patriotism  is 
almost  a  religion.  His  pride  in  the  Republic 
is  unsurpassed.  The  flag-drill  seen  at  its  best 
among  the  thousand  children  of  recently 
arrived  emigrants  from  Russia  at  the  Educa- 
tional Alliance,  New  York,  is  strikingly 
characteristic.  Even  as  children,  they  are 
taught  to  revere  "One  Country,  One  Flag!" 
It  is  not  merely  out  of  gratitude  that  the  Jew 
reveres  America  as  his  native  or  adopted 
land — his  feeling  springs  as  well  from  the 
consciousness  that  only  where  civil  and 
religious  liberty  is  assured  can  the  Jew  call 
any  land  his  own.  Hence  his  children  love 
to  sing  the  hymn  "America,"  although,  as 
in  the  case  of  recent  immigrants  in  general, 
it  is  not  a  "land  where  our  fathers  died." 
The  Jew  ceases  to  be  a  Pole,  a  German,  a 
Russian,  after  the  first  generation  has  grad- 
uated from  the  public  schools — he  becomes 


The  Jew  in  the  United  States     45 

an  American.  This  sentiment  accounts  for 
the  large  number  that  volunteered  in  the 
Spanish  War,  whether  as  Rough  Riders  or 
ordinary  soldiers  and  seamen.  He  fought  as 
bravely  for  the  South  as  for  the  Union  in  the 
Civil  War.  He  took  part  in  the  Revolution 
and  the  War  of  1812. 

But  his  most  valuable  trait  is  his  love  of 
education.  The  spirit  that  moves  a  poor 
peddler  in  a  New  York  Jewish  quarter  to 
study  Kant's  philosophy  while  on  his  rounds, 
or  to  read  in  faithful  translation  Herbert 
Spencer  or  Darwin,  is  peculiar  to  the  Jew, 
and  proves  his  moral  superiority  though  his 
garments  be  torn  and  his  occupation  lowly. 
The  same  spirit  impels  the  poorest  to  send 
his  children  to  the  public  school  and  to  aid 
them  at  great  personal  sacrifice  to  study  for 
the  learned  professions;  for  he  knows  that 
education  is  the  most  enduring  wealth  he  can 
bequeath.  That  Jewish  students  at  school 
and  college  are  among  the  most  successful  is 
the  general  testimony  of  teachers  in  every 
city;  and,  apart  from  natural  aptitude,  their 
high  standing  is  due  to  the  interest  evinced 
by  their  parents  and  the  value  assigned  to 
education.  It  is  suggestive  to  note  that 


46  What  Is  Judaism? 

attention  is  being  paid  more  and  more  to 
manual  and  technical  training,  with  some 
good  effort  in  the  direction  of  agricultural 
pursuits.  There  is  little  doubt  that  the  study 
of  the  Talmud  for  ten  centuries  and  more  has 
done  much  to  develop  his  brain-fibre  and 
make  almost  innate  a  love  of  learning  which 
neither  poverty  nor  privation  can  weaken, 
and  which  prosperity — that  ruthless  solvent 
of  old-fashioned  virtues — cannot  wholly  de- 
stroy. It  is  encouraging  to  note  the  same 
spirit  among  the  wealthier  element,  an 
increasing  number  of  whose  sons  are  turning 
from  trade  and  entering  the  learned  pro- 
fessions, where  pecuniary  advantages  are 
least  regarded. 

With  positive  qualities  for  good,  then,  and 
the  list  is  not  exhausted,  and  with  such  an 
honourable  record  for  the  past  250  years, 
what  of  the  future  of  the  Jews  of  the  United 
States?  Is  there  no  rift  within  the  lute,  no 
shadow  on  the  dial,  no  reverse  side  to  the 
mirror  which  exhibits  so  many  admirable 
qualities? 

The  rapid  increase  in  the  Jewish  popula- 
tion, due  chiefly  to  emigration  from  Russia 
since  1881,  has  furnished  a  problem  of  con- 


The  Jew  in  the  United  States     47 

siderable  magnitude,  which  has  severely  taxed 
the  energies  of  their  American  brethren.  Yet 
the  burden  has  been  patiently  and  cheerfully 
borne  and  the  solution  is  satisfactorily  taking 
place  without  friction  or  annoyance.  Save 
in  overcrowded  city  centres,  where  foreign 
nationalities  fasten  root  and  thrive,  the  new- 
comers offer  no  problem  at  all  and  are  prov- 
ing an  energetic  and  Americanised  element 
of  the  people.  They  are  spreading  out  in  all 
directions,  entering  the  various  lines  of  trade 
and  manufacture;  and  the  more  effectively 
they  are  distributed  throughout  the  country, 
with  many  of  them  taking  to  the  soil,  they 
cease  to  be  a  subject  of  special  concern.  The 
diverse  elements  in  American  Jewry  offer 
precisely  the  same  difficulties  as  are  pre- 
sented by  diverse  elements  in  the  general 
population  and  need  arouse  no  greater  appre- 
hension. Unification  is  slow  but  sure  in  both 
instances,  and  one  must  patiently  await 
results  which  cannot  be  hastened.  What 
clouds,  then,  the  future? 

It  is  often  said  that  certain  tendencies  in 
American  thought  are  sapping  the  bulwarks 
of  supernaturalism  and  thereby  endangering 
vital  Christian  dogmas  and  doctrines.  The 


48  What  Is  Judaism? 

peril  to  Judaism  is  less  in  a  wave  of  agnostic 
or  sceptical  thought  than  in  actual  conditions 
of  life  and  environment,  which  make  Juda- 
ism almost  impossible  without  a  radical 
readjustment  either  of  conditions  or  of  Juda- 
ism. It  is  admittedly  more  and  more  difficult 
to  maintain  olden  customs  and  observances 
which  were  deemed  inviolable  a  few  decades 
ago;  and,  if  the  destructive  process  continues 
much  further,  what  will  be  left  of  Judaism 
to  be  transmitted  to  the  future?  A  very 
minute  and  unrecognisable  quantity,  indeed. 
The  Jewish  Sabbath  is  practically  disre- 
garded. Home  ceremonials,  which  have  so 
magically  promoted  family  love  and  unity, 
have  almost  wholly  vanished.  If  American 
liberty  spells  for  the  American  Israelite  dis- 
loyalty to  his  religion,  it  is  not  an  unmixed 
blessing.  There  are  many  Israelites  by  birth, 
too,  who  never  attend  synagogue,  refuse  to 
associate  with  Jewry,  and  court  Christian 
society  as  evidence  of  a  superior  culture  and 
refinement, — some,  but  only  a  few  of  the 
first  generation,  submitting  to  baptism. 
Intermarriage  is  on  the  increase  undoubtedly ; 
few  families  are  entirely  free  from  what  has 
always  been  regarded  by  the  Jew  as  a  bar 


The  Jew  in  the  United  States     49 

sinister,  not  from  any  intolerance,  but  simply 
because,  if  it  is  a  natural  solution  of  the 
Jewish  question,  it  means  also  an  inevitable 
dissolution  of  the  Jew. 

Now,  it  is  possible  to  take  too  seriously 
these  departures  from  the  normal,  these 
examples  of  desertion  and  disloyalty;  for 
they  are  no  new  phenomena  and  have  always 
existed,  accounting  partly  for  the  world's 
small  Jewish  population.  It  is  only  the 
remnant  that  has  been  preserved,  to  main- 
tain the  faith  in  every  era  and  to  spring  to 
new  life  and  activity  after  each  exodus  or 
captivity.  The  same  truth  will  be  exempli- 
fied in  the  United  States.  There  are,  how- 
ever, none  the  less  hopeful  signs  that  indicate 
a  desire  for  restoration  and  upbuilding,  and 
a  resolution  to  be  loyal  to  old-time  standards. 
An  increased  impetus  has  been  given  to  the 
training  of  rabbis;  a  publication  society  is 
doing  excellent  work;  circuit  preaching  is 
organising  new  communities  in  the  West; 
the  women  are  banded  together  for  helpful 
educational  effort;  while  recent  immigra- 
tion has  brought  to  our  shores  some  men  of 
learning  and  religious  enthusiasm,  who  will 
prove  useful  in  restraining  further  inroads  of 


50  What  Is  Judaism? 

American  tidal-waves,  if  they  are  ever  to  be 
restrained.  American  Jewish  leaders,  too, 
while  apparently  lacking  in  qualities  of 
statesmanship,  are  alive  to  present  dangers. 
No  laissez-faire  policy  can  cope  with  dis- 
organising elements  that  have  gained  such 
headway.  To  avert  a  catastrophe,  the  Jew 
must  return  to  Judaism  and  its  essentials; 
and  his  leaders  must  bend  every  nerve  to 
reconcile  American  conditions  with  Jewish 
traditions.  Adaptation  is  possible  without 
surrender;  and  the  genius  of  the  Jewish 
people  which  has  withstood  an  almost  con- 
tinuous crucifixion  of  nearly  2000  years  is 
not  likely  to  yield  to  Yankee  notions  and 
American  expansion.  It  will  prove,  however, 
an  interesting  and  spirited  struggle  between 
forces  that  resist  and  forces  that  invite 
amalgamation  and  dissolution.  Much  ballast 
and  many  barnacles  from  European,  Asiatic, 
and  African  eras  of  history  will  have  to  be 
cast  away.  It  is  needless  to  be  apprehensive 
about  the  next  250  years  of  American  Israel. 
The  remnant  will  survive  and  what  is  vital 
and  essential  in  Judaism,  and  not  accidental 
or  Occidental  merely,  will  have  awakened  to 
renewed  and  blessed  activity. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  JEW  AND  THE  WORLD 

OF  recent  years  the  Jew,  always  a  subject 
for  treatment  more  or  less  heroic  by 
kings,  pontiffs,  knights,  and  commoners, 
since  he  was  made  to  assume  the  wanderer's 
r61e  and  told  remorselessly  to  "move  on" 
after  any  brief  respite  from  the  agony  of 
unrest,  seems  to  be  receiving  a  little  juster 
and  more  humane  consideration.  In  civilised 
climes,  at  least,  where  civil  and  religious 
freedom  is  assured  to  all  classes,  the  humanity 
in  the  Jew  has  become  recognised,  his  services 
in  the  struggle  for  intellectual  and  religious 
liberty  are  more  appreciated,  and  the  edge 
of  antipathy,  so  sharp  and  unrelenting  of  old, 
is  losing  much  of  its  keenness. 

Many   factors   have   combined    to   bring 
about  this  result.     Ours  is  a  century  which, 
with  all  its  fads  and  fancies,  is  fatal  to  preju- 
dices,   however   ancient.      It   is   an   image- 
Si 


52  What  Is  Judaism? 

breaking  age,  that  is  disposed  to  see  with  its 
own  eyes.  Commerce,  travel,  education,  a 
community  of  interests,  the  amenities  of 
business  and  social  intercourse,  are  giving 
the  death-blow  to  a  host  of  old-time  bigotries 
and  promoting  good  feeling  and  generous 
ccx-operation  for  the  common  welfare  on  the 
broadening  borderland  between  the  creeds. 
Popular  errors  are  persistent,  but,  happily, 
not  everlasting.  One  need  not  be  surprised 
that  the  Jew  has  cut  so  sorry  a  figure  in 
popular  proverbs,  and  that  his  caricature 
and  counterfeit  still  drag  out  an  inartistic, 
if  very  obtrusive,  existence  on  the  stage  and 
in  the  comic  weeklies. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  dwell  for  a  moment 
on  those  bitter  ages  of  crucifixion  for  the  Jew, 
even  if  relieved  here  and  there  by  sunset 
gleams  of  hope.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  discuss 
what  justification,  if  any,  existed  for  the  long- 
continued  travail.  That  he  has  survived  it 
all,  that  he  has  proved  neither  coward  nor 
traitor,  is  surely  not  accidental.  God's 
shadow  still  rests  on  history.  There  is  no 
blank  page  between  the  Testament  of  the 
Past  and  the  Testament  of  the  Present.  The 
unknown  factor  in  events  has  come  to  be  the 


The  Jew  and  the  World        53 

best  known  and  most  positive.  The  survival 
of  the  Jew  and  Judaism,  this  magnificent 
persistence  in  the  face  of  a  thousand  odds, 
would  indicate  some  high  purpose.  There 
must  be  compensation  for  suffering,  like 
sunshine  after  rain. 

Now  the  most  remarkable  indication  of  the 
civilised  world's  changed  attitude  towards 
the  Jew  is  not  so  much  the  blessing  of  political 
emancipation  bestowed  at  last;  for  he  has 
merely  shared  in  the  triumphs  enjoyed  in 
this  century  by  all  creeds  and  opinions.  His 
privileges  are  not  exceptional  in  this  respect. 
It  is  rather  his  appearance  in  literature  as  a 
subject  no  longer  for  derision,  but  for  earnest 
contemplation  and  study,  which  is  most 
significant.  Since  Lessing  idealised  Moses 
Mendelssohn,  the  Jew  in  fiction  has  acquired 
a  certain  continuity,  which,  despite  aber- 
rations and  exaggerations,  constitutes  a  most 
suggestive  sign  of  the  times.  The  world  is 
apparently  half  ashamed  of  the  past,  and 
would  make  atonement.  It  admires  pluck. 
The  Jew  has  been  the  under-dog  in  the  fight. 
He  has  been  flung  into  the  mud,  and  then 
blamed  if  his  garments  were  soiled.  He 
maintains  his  old  attitude  unflinchingly.  He 


54  What  Is  Judaism? 

adheres  to  his  law.  He  is  courageous,  per- 
sistent, no  idler  or  dreamer,  but  a  worker  in 
every  field  open  to  him.  He  is  restless,  eager, 
quick  to  seize  favourable  opportunity, 
patient,  biding  his  time.  Is  the  world  touched 
at  last?  Does  it  realise  that  it  need  not  go  to 
antiquity  for  heroic  types?  The  antique  is 
at  its  doors  in  the  despised  Jew.  Whatever 
the  reason,  it  hastens  to  repair  the  wrong  and 
utilises  the  Jew  and  his  creed,  his  hopes,  his 
achievements,  his  aspirations,  as  material 
for  popular  fiction,  so  that  the  Jew  is  no 
longer  a  stranger  at  the  hearths  of  mankind. 
It  was  George  Eliot,  perhaps,  who  set  the 
fashion,  and  her  Daniel  Deronda,  with  all 
its  shadowy  and  fantastic  outlines,  embodied 
a  useful  lesson.  Since  her  day,  it  is  difficult 
to  keep  pace  with  the  stream  of  books  that 
illustrate  the  Jew  in  fiction,  while  countless 
articles  in  the  magazines  and  reviews  deal 
with  the  Jewish  question,  which  has  become 
a  symposium,  international  and  intercon- 
fessional,  to  which  some  of  the  clearest  and 
most  prominent  writers  and  thinkers  indus- 
triously contribute. 

It  is  fortunate  that  the  Jew's  vindication 
does  not  rest  upon  fiction  alone.    It  is  possi- 


The  Jew  and  the  World        55 

ble  for  the  Jew  of  fiction  to  be  a  distortion — 
to  be  an  ideal,  and  give  a  wholly  untrue 
picture.  The  modern  author  may  err  as 
much  in  one  direction  as  the  mediaeval 
painter  did  in  another  when  he  gave  us  saints 
of  Judaea  with  the  features  of  Dutch  and 
Flemish  peasants.  Contemporary  history 
is  the  ultimate  test.  The  position  of  the  Jew 
to-day  in  life  and  thought  has  the  basis  of 
fact,  not  fiction.  There  is  hardly  a  field  in 
which  he  has  not  gained  prominence.  The 
rise  of  anti-Semitism  is  only  one  evidence  of 
the  Jew's  strength  and  versatility.  It  is  due 
chiefly  to  Brodneid — to  envy.  That  is  the 
secret  of  prejudice  against  the  Jew. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Jew's  dis- 
persion has  made  him  a  cosmopolitan.  He 
possesses  the  faculty  of  adaptation.  He  is  at 
home  everywhere.  Hence  his  versatility  and 
range.  Time  was  when  he  was  restricted  by 
church  and  state  to  the  solitary  occupation 
of  money-lender,  but  now  he  roams  at  will 
in  every  field,  although  centuries  of  exclusive 
association  with  finance  have  admittedly 
developed  his  abilities  in  that  direction.  In 
his  case,  it  is  not  the  intensity  of  genius  which 
has  won  him  triumphs,  but  the  genius  of 


56  What  Is  Judaism? 

intensity  and  concentration.  His  powers 
have  been  developed  by  environment.  Old- 
time  Jewish  education  was  wonderfully  stim- 
ulating. It  is  a  blunder  to  speak  of  the 
Talmud  as  stunting  and  dwarfing  the  Jew. 
The  study  of  the  Talmud  gave  bent  and 
nutriment  to  the  Jewish  brain  and  preserved 
the  race  from  stagnation.  Moral  and  relig- 
ious forces,  too,  springing  from  the  home  and 
parental  teaching,  were  active  in  shaping  the 
young  and  giving  them  wholesome  safe- 
guards and  balance-wheels. 

What,  then,  is  the  Jew's  record  abroad 
to-day?  What  does  he  contribute  to  human 
knowledge,  to  science  in  all  its  branches, 
to  art,  philanthropy,  learning,  literature, 
in  their  myriad  aspects?  Does  he  preside 
over  the  destinies  of  states?  Does  he  rule 
in  the  parliaments  of  the  world?  Does  he 
lead  in  social  movements  as  well  as  in  the 
exchanges?  Is  he  an  interpreter  of  science 
as  in  mediaeval  times,  in  centuries  called 
the  Dark  Ages,  when  he  was  the  physician 
of  princes,  the  adviser  of  kings  and  caliphs, 
poet,  philosopher,  grammarian,  mathemati- 
cian, ambassador? 

It  was  once  the  intention  of  James  Russell 


The  Jew  and  the  World        57 

Lowell  to  collect  material  which  should 
illustrate  the  varied  record  of  the  Jew  in 
every  department  of  activity.  He  felt,  per- 
haps, that  justice  had  been  scantily  done  to 
Jewish  achievement  and  that  such  a  roll-call 
would  silence  for  ever  the  slanderer.  If  one 
would  sketch  in  outline  a  chronicle  of  Jewish 
endeavour,  and  limit  its  range  to  the  past 
few  decades  only,  what  an  object-lesson 
would  be  unfolded! 

It  is  about  fifty  years  since  Heine  passed 
away.  In  poetry  his  place  is  still  to  be  filled. 
But  although  Dusseldorf  refused  the  proffered 
monument  in  his  honour  because  he  was  of 
Jewish  birth,  the  race  which  Heine  loved  and 
hated,  scorned  yet  idolised  in  the  contra- 
dictions of  his  genius,  has  attained  in  Ger- 
many indisputable  prominence.  In  the 
liberal  movement  it  was  Ferdinand  Lassalle, 
whose  name  will  always  be  associated  with 
Socialism,  while  now  it  is  Singer,  who  was 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  leaders  in 
Parliament.  Eduard  Lasker,  educated  to 
become  a  rabbi,  left  an  imperishable  record 
among  German  orators.  The  gentle  Berthold 
Auerbach,  whose  idealism  was  rudely  dis- 
turbed by  the  persecutions  in  Russia,  has 


58  What  Is  Judaism? 

earned  a  permanent  rank  in  German  litera- 
ture, along  with  August  Bernstein,  whose 
services  in  popularising  science  are  not  to  be 
underestimated;  Leopold  Kompert,  the  poet 
of  the  Ghetto;  and  Karl  Emil  Franzos,  with 
his  picturesque  novels  and  sketches  of 
Roumanian  and  Galician  life.  One  might 
add  a  number  of  popular  and  instructive 
writers,  men  of  the  calibre  of  Gustav  Kar- 
peles,  Julius  Rodenberg,  Paul  Lindau,  and 
Ludwig  Fulda.  If  we  add  the  large  and 
constantly  increasing  coterie  of  university 
professors,  specialists  in  nearly  every  science 
and  pursuit,  who  maintain  the  reputation  of 
a  Philip  Jaffe  in  history,  a  Bernays  in  classical 
philology,  a  Gustav  Weil  in  Arabic  lore,  an 
Abraham  Geiger,  Zunz,  Graetz,  and  Z. 
Frankel  in  rabbinical  and  Jewish  historical 
science,  a  Mosenthal  in  the  drama,  a  Sanders 
in  German  philology,  and  a  Meyerbeer  in 
music,  one  may  realise  what  a  commanding 
array  of  talent  is  presented.  The  past  few 
decades  may  be  aptly  termed  a  Jewish 
Renaissance  in  Germany  in  all  that  pertains 
to  culture  and  enlightenment.  M.  Lazarus, 
H.  Steinthal,  and  M.  Steinschneider  are 
universally  recognised. 


The  Jew  and  the  World        59 

Perhaps  in  no  country  has  the  Jew  become 
so  thoroughly  identified  with  his  surroundings 
as  in  France.  As  a  result,  his  position  is 
confessedly  high.  In  music,  Halevy;  in 
philosophy,  Adolphe  Franck;  in  Oriental 
studies,  Munk,  Oppert,  Jos.  Halevy,  the 
Derenbourgs,  and  Darmesteter;  in  Biblical 
criticism  and  the  science  of  religion,  Salva- 
dor; in  philanthropy  and  finance,  Fould, 
Cremieux,  the  Rothschilds,  the  Pereires,  and 
Baron  de  Hirsch, — are  but  a  few  names 
culled  from  a  lengthy  list  of  French  Israelites 
who  occupy  a  prominent  rank  in  literature, 
art,  science,  education,  and  the  public 
service.  The  voice  of  Gambetta  is  stilled, 
but  the  Jew  in  France  has  capacity  and 
enthusiasm  enough  to  be  more  than  dilettante 
in  the  problems  which  beset  his  country. 

If  Denmark  can  produce  a  critic  like 
Georg  Brandes,  Holland  a  painter  like  Jos. 
Israels,  Russia  a  composer  like  Rubinstein 
and  a  sculptor  like  Antokolski  (although 
both  voluntarily  shared  exile  with  a  million 
of  their  poorer  brethren) ;  if  Italy  can  point 
to  Maurogonato,  Morpurgo,  Luzzatti,  Alatri 
—the  brilliant  contributions  of  the  Jews  of 
England  within  the  past  few  decades  alone 


60  What  Is  Judaism? 

need  not  arouse  surprise.  The  Earl  of 
Beaconsfield  will  always  be  regarded  as  a 
Jew,  although  he  is  buried  in  Hughenden 
churchyard.  No  conforming  Jew  could 
have  more  ardently  championed  the  cause 
of  Israel.  Disraeli's  name  in  statecraft, 
Montefiore's  deeds  in  philanthropy,  are 
perennial.  Sir  George  Jessel  became  Master 
of  the  Rolls  without  losing  his  interest  in  the 
synagogue.  Lord  Rothschild  does  not  find 
it  inconsistent  with  his  dignity  to  preside 
over  a  society  for  the  education  of  poor 
Jewish  children.  Sir  Julian  Goldsmid  can 
petition  Parliament  in  behalf  of  the  perse- 
cuted Jews  of  Russia.  To  Schiller-Szinessy 
is  largely  due  the  revival  of  Hebrew  studies 
in  England:  and  Neubauer  and  Schechter 
continued  the  work.  In  mathematics  Syl- 
vester is  a  national  authority.  In  Biblical 
criticism  Claude  G.  Montefiore  has  rapidly 
won  fame;  he  is  one  of  a  number  of  scholars 
who  have  advanced  in  man}'-  ways  the 
standing  and  influence  of  English  Judaism. 
In  technical  education  Sir  Philip  Magnus  is 
an  authority.  It  was  England's  chief  rabbi, 
Dr.  Herrman  Adler,  who  was  invited  by  a 
society  of  Christian  clergymen  to  lecture  on 


The  Jew  and  the  World         61 

"Sanitation    as     Taught    by    the    Mosaic 
Code." 

There  is  every  likelihood  that  Israel  may 
enter  more  energetically  on  a  practical  work, 
that  its  leaders  in  civilised  lands  may  co- 
operate in  the  task  of  social  and  economic 
reform,  that  Jewish  wealth  and  intellect  may 
unite  with  the  thoughtful  and  benevolent  of 
every  creed,  to  uplift  mankind  to  a  higher 
level  of  righteousness.  The  Jew  makes  no 
propaganda.  No  one  need  be  a  Jew  to  share 
eternal  bliss.  The  Psalmist  sprang  from 
non-Hebrew  stock,  and  in  one  of  his  most 
expressive  psalms,  still  recited  in  the  syna- 
gogue, makes  purity  of  heart  and  cleanliness 
of  hands  the  conditions  for  entering  God's 
tabernacle.  If  the  Jew  should  devote  the  en- 
ergy and  concentration,  which  have  made  him 
so  successful  in  finance,  trade,  the  arts  and 
sciences,  to  the  solemn  problems  of  human 
betterment,  "loosening  the  bands  of  wicked- 
ness, undoing  the  heavy  burdens,  freeing  the 
oppressed,  and  breaking  every  yoke,"  the 
Messianic  age  would  advance  with  rapid 
strides.  The  unsectarian  benevolence  of 
Jewish  philanthropists  of  the  stamp  of 
Montefiore  and  Hirsch  and  the  numerous 


62  What  Is  Judaism? 

benefactions  by  wealthy  Jews,  "without  dis- 
tinction of  creed,"  are  harbingers  of  the 
future,  faint  foregleams  of  coming  sunshine 
that  shall  brighten  and  strengthen  and  unify 
humanity. 

Single  characters  from  Jewish  history — 
Moses,  Ruth,  Elijah,  Samson,  the  Maccabees 
— have  been  seized  by  composers  and  made 
the  subjects  of  elaborate  musical  treatment. 
But  what  a  theme  for  a  symphony  is  the 
entire  history  of  the  Jews!  The  first  move- 
ment should  embody  the  Jew's  Lehrjahre — 
his  centuries  of  apprenticeship,  from  the  era 
of  the  patriarchs  to  the  captivity.  The 
second  should  illustrate  his  Wanderjahre — 
his  centuries  of  wandering,  from  the  Baby- 
lonian exile  almost  to  our  own  era,  marked 
still  by  exile  for  the  Jew  in  benighted  lands. 
The  third  movement,  which  should  vie  in 
grandeur  and  joyous  exaltation  with  Bee- 
thoven's matchless  "Choral"  symphony, 
might  depict  the  Jew's  Meisterjahre — his 
epoch  of  mastery,  when  the  prophet's  ideal 
of  a  purified  humanity,  united,  uplifted,  and 
glorified — "Have  we  not  all  one  Father? 
Hath  not  one  God  created  us?" — shall  be 
universally  acknowledged.  What  a  field 


The  Jew  and  the  World        63 

here  for  genius  and  science!  Passionate 
longing,  ardent  tenderness,  profound  com- 
passion, fiery  aspiration,  rapt  devotion,  must 
find  their  musical  expression.  Perhaps  some 
Rubinstein  of  a  later  day  may  deem  such  a 
theme  worthy  of  his  powers.  It  was  Spohr 
who  devoted  an  entire  symphony  to  "The 
Power  of  Sound"  to  suggest  that  man  is 
accompanied  by  music  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave.  When  the  "Israel"  symphony  is 
written,  let  it  illustrate  "The  Power  of 
Righteousness,"  for  that  is  the  flaming  text 
of  prophet  and  sage,  of  law  and  psalm,  of 
testament  and  code,  the  leit-motif  of  the  Jew 
in  history. 


CHAPTER  V 

HAS  JUDAISM  A  FUTURE? 

IT  is  difficult  to  secure  a  just  and  unbiased 
interpretation  of  Judaism  as  a  modern 
religion,  because  the  Jew  is  treated  either 
with  superlative  praise  or  superlative  con- 
demnation. The  want  of  due  proportion  in 
the  estimate  in  both  cases  leads  to  faulty 
generalising  and  gross  injustice.  For  the 
Jew  is  neither  angel  nor  fiend,  but  a  pro- 
foundly human  animal  with  all  the  defects 
and  virtues,  original  and  acquired,  that  are 
common  to  mankind,  "Jew  and  Gentile, 
bond  and  free."  Perhaps  on  the  whole  his 
enemies  have  done  less  harm  than  his 
friends.  People  like  to  be  agreeably  dis- 
appointed. It  is  pleasant  to  realise  that 
the  average  Jew  is  certainly  no  fiend;  and 
it  is  always  more  or  less  of  a  shock  to 
discover  that  our  idol  is  necessarily  of 
clay.  The  Jew,  then,  is  neither  a  Daniel 
64 


Has  Judaism  a  Future?        65 

Deronda  nor  a  Fagin,  neither  a  Shylock 
nor  a  Nathan. 

That  the  Jew  is  treated  as  a  rule  with  a 
prejudice  which  either  exaggerates  or  dis- 
torts the  truth,  is  due  almost  wholly  to  the 
amazing  popular  ignorance  of  his  history  and 
religion — an  ignorance  which,  unhappily,  is 
not  confined  to  caricaturists  in  the  comic 
weeklies  or  playwrights  who  revel  in  hooked 
noses  and  flashy  jewellery  as  essentially 
Hebrew  characteristics.  Even  to  Thomas 
Carlyle,  Judaism  is  simply  a  religion  of  "old 
clothes."  So  cultured  and  refined  a  critic  as 
Goldwin  Smith  seems  as  much  irritated  when 
he  touches  upon  the  Jew  as  was  Haman  when 
he  saw  Mordecai  at  the  gate.  It  would  be 
harsh  to  say  that  the  Jew  is  made  a  man  of 
straw,  a  kind  of  theological  scarecrow,  dating 
from  the  early  centuries,  and  sent  adrift 
down  the  ages  as  a  perpetual  object-lesson 
in  irreligion,  contumacy,  formalism,  greed, 
to  guileless  children  of  light,  who  give  him 
an  extra  kick  or  two  now  and  then,  to  keep 
themselves  in  practice,  and  satisfy  their  dis- 
ingenuous piety.  But  is  the  charge  without 
historic  basis? 

Practically,  the  Jew  who  serves  the  nine- 

5 


66  What  Is  Judaism? 

teenth  century  moral  and  adorns  its  tale  is 
the  Jew  of  Gospel  records — the  Pharisee  of 
the  Pharisees,  with  all  the  reputed  and  none 
of  the  reputable  traits  of  his  class.  If  he  is 
referred  to  in  sermons  and  hymns,  he  is  still 
the  Jew  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is 
Caiaphas  and  Judas  Iscariot  who  are  his 
representative  men.  He  is  a  Palestinian, 
wears  broad  phylacteries,  and  utters  ghastly 
imprecations  on  his  enemies  in  a  language 
which  can  be  understood  only  by  the  sacred 
few.  Let  him  be  anathema. 

If  the  Jew,  then,  is  so  caricatured,  need  it 
excite  surprise  that  Judaism  receives  as 
scanty  justice?  It,  too,  is  relegated  to  the 
past,  to  the  lumber-room  of  antiquities.  It 
is  to  be  exhibited  in  a  Semitic  museum, 
forsooth,  with  the  fossils  and  remains  of 
primitive  religions.  Its  rites  and  ceremonies 
are  to  be  illustrated  in  glass  cases  for  the 
special  [delectation  of  candidates  for  the 
ministry.  It  is  to  be  dissected  and  analysed 
for  the  benefit  of  students  of  comparative 
philology.  It  can  be  made  to  furnish  inter- 
esting data  in  the  fields  of  ethnography  and 
anthropology.  In  one  word,  it  can  be 
tolerated  as  a  skeleton  or  a  corpse,  but  not 


Has  Judaism  a  Future  ?         67 

as  a  living  organism.  It  may  be  granted  a 
past,  but  no  present  can  be  admitted  and  no 
future  dare  be  insisted  upon. 

The  Jew  pleads  for  justice,  not  for  glorifi- 
cation. His  critics  should  cease  to  view  him 
with  the  telescope,  as  if  he  were  an  occupant 
of  another  sphere.  Let  them  abandon  their 
microscope  as  well,  in  their  fondness  to 
detect  the  most  minute  defects,  and  lay  aside 
favourite  spectacles  through  which  only 
their  own  mental  strabismus  can  be  dis- 
cerned. Let  them  judge  the  Jew  as  he  is. 
Let  them  study  Judaism  as  it  is.  They  will 
discover  that  both  are  very  much  alive.  The 
time  is  past  for  labelling  Judaism  as  pre- 
historic or  the  Jew  as  belonging  to  the  ex- 
tinct civilisations  of  the  East,  with  the 
Phoenicians,  Hittites,  and  the  rest.  Call  him 
an  arrested  development,  if  you  like:  a  sur- 
vival, an  anachronism.  He  has  survived, 
because,  numerically  weak,  he  has  been 
spiritually  strong.  He  has  resisted  his 
environment  with  all  of  his  contradictions 
and  limitations;  he  has  withstood  with 
heroic  endurance  opposing  forces,  and  he 
withstands  them  still.  The  very  methods 
adopted  to  extirpate  him  have  been  his  sal- 


68  What  Is  Judaism? 

vation.  The  weapons  forged  against  him, 
strange  to  say,  have  been  his  protection.  In 
losing  Palestine,  he  gained  the  universe.  He 
was  denationalised  to  become  an  interna- 
tional and  cosmopolitan.  The  Orient  was 
only  one  phase  of  his  history.  Just  as  the 
Babylonian  captivity  cured  him  for  ever  of 
idolatry,  his  world-wandering  is  teaching  him 
the  universal  spirit  which  is  at  the  basis  of 
Jewish  prophetism.  The  remedy  was  radical, 
because  the  disease  had  reached  its  crisis  and 
heroic  measures  were  imperative. 

It  is  an  egregious  blunder  to  consider  Jew- 
ish history  synonymous  with  Biblical  history. 
The  Old  Testament  tells  simply  of  Jewish 
beginnings.  The  greater  Jewish  exodus  did 
not  end  with  the  departure  of  the  Israelites 
from  Egypt.  That  historic  migration  still 
continues.  The  Hebrew,  as  the  name  ety- 
mologically  suggests,  is  the  emigrant  of 
history — from  the  time  of  Abraham  to  our 
own  age  the  movement  continues.  What  is 
occurring  in  Russia,  the  landslides  in  recent 
decades  from  Germany,  Poland,  Roumania, 
this  is  but  a  grim  repetition  of  the  long  series 
of  migrations  that  mark  every  century.  It 
is  Persia  in  one  epoch,  Egypt  in  another, 


Has  Judaism  a  Future  ?        69 

Italy  and  Greece  in  their  turn,  then  Arabia 
and  Christian  Spain,  Central  Europe,  Eng- 
land, France,  all  links  in  an  endless  chain. 
Yet,  despite  the  constant  shifting  of  condition 
and  environment,  there  were  many  breathing 
spells  for  the  Jew  when  he  could  prove  ham- 
mer as  well  as  anvil,  and  become  more  than 
a  silent  factor  in  the  world's  advancement. 
The  story  of  the  Jew's  influence  on  civilisa- 
tion, the  record  of  his  services  in  the  arts  and 
sciences,  in  literature,  music,  philosophy,  and 
statecraft,  is  still  to  be  written.  The  brief 
monograph  of  Schleiden  requires  to  be  sup- 
plemented by  a  more  pretentious  work  of 
wider  range. 

If  the  critic  of  Judaism  desires  to  gauge 
that  religion  accurately,  he  must  familiarise 
himself  with  the  history  of  the  Jew  in  every 
land;  he  must  follow  the  devious  windings 
of  his  record  East  and  West.  He  must 
account  for  that  marvellous  vitality  which 
has  been  his  preservative,  and  the  unex- 
ampled adaptiveness  which  made  the  Jew  at 
home,  whether  he  saw  the  Guadalquivir  or 
the  Vistula  at  his  feet,  the  Thames  or  the 
Euphrates,  amid  the  orange  groves  of  Sicily 
or  the  plains  of  Arabia — an  adaptiveness 


70  What  Is  Judaism? 

which  he  still  displays  as  settler  in  Australia, 
South  Africa,  or  the  Argentine.  The  critical 
inquirer,  too,  should  ascertain  the  Jew's 
record  in  the  lands  of  his  dispersion  and  his 
relation  to  the  state,  however  insecure  his 
right  of  domicile.  Did  the  Jew  originally 
seek  a  Ghetto,  or  was  it  not  an  enforced 
seclusion  as  if  he  were  contamination  and 
needed  to  be  kept  aloof  from  the  rest  of 
mankind?  Did  the  Jew  avoid  society  and 
mingle  only  with  his  special  clan,  or  was  not 
that  exclusiveness  fostered  and  maintained  by 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  enactment?  Was  the 
Jew  always  a  dealer  in  "old  clo',"  a  money- 
lender, the  pawnbroker  of  humanity?  The 
French  Cremieux  and  James  Darmesteter, 
the  English  George  Jessel  and  Moses  Monte- 
fiore,  the  Dutch  Godefroi  and  Josef  Israels, 
the  German  Edward  Lasker  and  Berthold 
Auerbach,  the  Russian  Rubinstein  and  Anto- 
kolski,  George  Brandes  in  Denmark,  Luigi 
Luzzati  in  Italy,  Emma  Lazarus  in  Amer- 
ica, are  names  of  our  time,  who  are  but 
successors  of  illustrious  leaders  centuries  ago 
in  varied  fields,  Jews  who  served  the  state 
under  caliph,  king,  and  pontiff,  who  aided 
powerfully  in  the  revival  of  learning,  in  the 


Has  Judaism  a  Future  ?        71 

discoveries  of  science,  in  the  dissemination  of 
knowledge  and  literature.  The  true  student 
of  Jewish  history,  too,  must  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  inner  life  of  the  Jew  and 
the  story  of  the  synagogue's  development, 
its  devotional  and  intellectual  range,  the 
growth  and  ramification  of  Jewish  law  and 
custom,  which  became  burden  and  blessing 
both,  a  crown  as  well  as  a  yoke. 

If  his  inquiry  has  been  genuine,  the  critic 
will  realise  that  the  Jew's  history,  far  from 
having  ended  when  the  temple  fell  and 
Jerusalem  became  AZlia  Capitolina,  has  been 
and  is  still  a  continuous  record.  If  the  study 
has  been  thorough  and  not  superficial,  it  will 
be  found  that  Judaism,  too,  has  been  in 
constant  growth  and  change,  and  is  in  itself  a 
striking  illustration  of  the  theory  of  evolution. 
Whatever  views  one  may  hold  of  the  com- 
position of  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
respective  dates  of  its  books,  to  speak  of  the 
prophetism  of  the  patriarchs  is  as  much  an 
anachronism  as  to  refer  to  the  rabbinism  of 
Moses  or  the  Judaism  of  the  Judges.  One 
must  be  prepared  to  admit  distinct  phases  in 
the  history  and  development  of  Judaism, 
from  Abraham  to  Moses,  from  Moses  to 


72  What  Is  Judaism? 

Ezra,  from  Ezra  to  Jochanan  ben  Zaccai,  who 
founded  the  school  from  which  Talmudism 
sprang;  from  the  sages  of  the  Talmud  to  the 
mediaeval  rabbis  with  whom  the  rabbinical 
era  began;  from  Maimonides  and  his  suc- 
cessors with  the  development  of  local  codes 
and  customs,  which  became  the  orthodoxy 
of  their  age,  to  Mendelssohn,  the  forerunner 
of  a  new  epoch,  contemporary  with  the 
French  Revolution  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
birth  of  the  American  republic  on  the  other. 
Judaism  is  thus  a  growth,  not  an  instanta- 
neous creation.  The  marvellous  changes  it 
has  witnessed  from  the  day  when  the  Israel- 
ites received  the  olden  tabernacle,  with  its 
minutiae  of  worship,  to  its  latest  develop- 
ments in  cultured  lands  of  our  time,  are  but 
forecasts,  perhaps,  of  greater  changes  to  come. 
What,  then,  of  Judaism's  future?  What 
will  be  its  final  phase,  after  the  travail  of  ages, 
the  crucifixion  of  the  centuries?  Surely  the 
solution  of  the  Jewish  problem  cannot  be  the 
dissolution  of  Judaism,  the  total  absorption 
of  the  Jew  by  the  nations,  his  abrupt  dis- 
appearance from  the  field.  Leaving  out  of 
the  question  all  theological  prejudices,  and 
facing  the  problem  as  students  of  history, 


Has  Judaism  a  Future?         73 

the  Jew's  persistence  on  the  stage  of  human 
effort,  despite  ten  thousand  odds,  is  not 
likely  to  weaken  as  the  ages  advance.  He 
has  more  factors  in  his  favour  than  ever 
before.  The  world  has  grown.  It  is  ceasing 
to  be  a  battle-ground  of  the  creeds,  which  are 
slowly  becoming  lines,  not  walls.  Ugly 
hatreds  and  prejudices  still  are  held,  but  the 
borderland  of  the  religions  is  widening  day 
by  day,  as  their  agreements,  not  differences, 
are  kept  in  view. 

The  ultimate  phase  of  Judaism  baffles 
inquiry  as  much  as  the  ultimate  phase  of 
human  progress.  Two  opinions,  both  purely 
speculative,  may  be  given  here.  Each  is 
stoutly  advocated,  with  proof -texts  in  abun- 
dance. The  one  sees  the  future  of  Judaism 
in  a  rehabilitated  Jewish  state,  with  Jeru- 
salem its  capital,  which  shall  prove  a  court 
of  arbitration  for  the  nations,  thus  diffusing 
peace  and  happiness  throughout  the  universe 
even  as  the  sparks  of  the  sacrificial  offerings 
fly  upward.  The  other  finds  the  future  of 
Judaism  not  in  the  absorption  of  the  Jew  by 
the  nations,  but  in  the  absorption  of  the 
nations  by  the  Jew,  the  thorough  permeat- 
ing of  mankind  by  the  spirit  of  Judaism, 


74  What  Is  Judaism? 

as  manifested  successively  by  Christianity, 
Mohammedanism,  and  the  religion  of  those 
who  recognise  God,  virtue,  and  immortality. 
It  claims  that  the  tendency  in  all  modern 
faiths  is  toward  unity,  simplicity,  and 
purification;  that  as  the  process  continues 
with  the  widening  of  the  ages  the  nations 
will  slip  off  their  theologies  and  theogonies 
and  derive  more  comfort  from  the  prophet 
than  from  the  casuist.  If  in  the  final  out- 
come all  forms  of  faiths  disappear  and  a  new 
combination  arises,  the  law  of  the  conserva- 
tion of  spiritual  forces  must  still  hold  sway, 
and  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  the  inspiration  in 
the  Testaments  that  have  impelled  mankind 
to  righteousness  will  ever  be  lost.  The 
resultant  religion  will  not  be  different  in 
spirit  to  the  declaration  of  the  Pentateuch, 
which  is  voiced  by  the  Christian  Gospel  and 
finds  its  echo  in  the  bibles  of  many  creeds: 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself." 
When  the  nations  shall  have  reached  the 
heights  of  perfect  brotherhood,  Judaism's 
future  will  have  dawned.  It  will  cheerfully 
lay  down  its  shield  and  sword,  its  rod  and 
staff.  The  end  of  religions  will  have  come 
in  the  birth  of  religion ! 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  JEWISH  HOME 

IN  our  rapid-transit  age,  pious  sentiment 
has  lost  much  of  its  potency,  and  cher- 
ished traditions  that  enforced  certain  vital 
truths  disappear  as  surely  as  the  trees  that 
once  gave  beauty  and  shade  to  our  city 
streets.  We  cannot  pause  by  the  way  for 
quiet  reverie;  we  dare  not  rest  in  our  era  of 
competition.  The  wheels  must  incessantly 
turn,  the  energies  be  urged  ever  at  breakneck 
speed.  Home,  affection,  family  happiness, 
the  household  altar  around  which  cluster 
such  inspiring  ideals,  all  must  be  imperilled, 
if  not  sacrificed,  in  the  mad  race  for  gold, 
fame,  preferment.  And  the  danger  threaten- 
ing that  magic  isle  of  safety,  the  home,  can 
no  longer  be  denied. 

Undoubtedly,  Jewish  ideals  suffer,  like 
ideals  in  general,  from  the  spur  and  strain  of 
present-day  conditions,  and  much  that  was 

75 


76  What  Is  Judaism? 

for  agesjregarded  as  sacred  and  inviolable  in 
character  and  custom  has  vanished  in  the 
change  of  clime  and  environment.  Much, 
however,  is  still  unaffected,  so  strong  and 
time-proof  are  the  olden  foundations.  Un- 
like the  temple  of  Philae,  with  its  wondrous 
associations,  which  has  been  gradually  sub- 
merged with  the  introduction  of  modern 
irrigation  methods  in  Egypt,  the  Jewish 
home,  with  its  memories  as  historic  and 
venerable,  continues  practically  unchanged 
in  spirit,  even  in  our  American  atmosphere. 
Its  graceful  lines  are  as  clear,  its  inspirations 
as  effective,  its  basic  principles  as  potent  as 
ever.  Now,  the  American  Israelite  does  not 
wish  to  be  differentiated  from  his  brother  of 
another  creed  in  all  that  pertains  to  citizen- 
ship, nor  does  he  desire  to  be  singled  out  for 
praise  or  censure  as  if  he  were  an  anomaly  or 
an  anachronism.  Yet  his  home  is  certainly 
unique,  and  he  need  not  be  unduly  sensitive 
if  he  be  asked  for  the  secret  of  that  house- 
hold's charm  and  vitality.  What  qualities 
give  it  undefinable  power?  What  formative 
influences  are  enshrined  under  its  roof  to 
make  it  one  of  the  chief  factors  in  the  Jew's 
preservation?  What  subtle  magic,  even 


The  Jewish  Home  77 

to-day  with  so  many  disintegrating  tenden- 
cies, invests  it  with  such  strength  and 
permanence?  In  other  words,  what  does  the 
Jewish  home  stand  for? 

i.  It  stands,  first,  for  religion.  That 
element  is  its  basic  principle,  which  enters  as 
much  into  the  home  as  into  the  synagogue, 
and  in  some  respects  is  more  prominent  in 
the  household.  It  associates  religion  with 
the  daily  life  of  the  family  and  the  individual, 
and  blends  ideal  influences  with  the  domestic 
atmosphere.  On  the  very  threshold,  on  the 
door-post  of  the  house,  is  seen  a  rectangular 
piece  of  parchment,  inscribed  with  two 
sections  from  Deuteronomy — a  Mosaic  com- 
mand scrupulously  observed  for  thousands 
of  years — which  embody  the  foundation  of 
Jewish  belief,  the  unity  of  God  and  the 
injunction  to  love  Him  with  heart,  soul,  and 
might,  and  to  teach  that  belief  to  one's 
children — "and  thou  shalt  write  them  on  the 
door-post  of  thy  house  and  on  thy  gates." 
With  such  a  symbol  ever  present,  the  religious 
environment  is  undeniable.  The  historic 
festivals  are  scenes  of  family  reunion.  Sab- 
bath eve  is  welcomed  by  a  special  ceremonial 
— when  the  Sabbath  light  is  lit,  emblem  of 


78  What  Is  Judaism? 

happiness,  and  the  double  loaf  of  bread 
adorns  the  table,  to  signify  the  double  portion 
which  the  Israelites  of  old  were  to  gather  in 
the  wilderness  on  the  sixth  day,  so  as  to  keep 
the  Sabbath  holy.  And  even  if  in  our  keen 
competitive  era  a  closed  Saturday  is  impos- 
sible among  the  large  majority  of  employees 
and  employers,  some  distinction  is  preserved, 
the  women  and  children  attend  service, 
household  work  is  lightened.  Each  festival 
has  its  appropriate  greeting,  in  whose  message 
young  and  old  share.  There  is  blessing  after 
meals,  with  traditional  songs  and  melodies 
for  all.  There  is  nothing  harsh  or  repressive 
in  such  an  atmosphere — it  spells  joyousness, 
mutual  affection,  domestic  peace.  The  home 
is  in  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty,  who  is  no 
tyrant,  but  Father,  Counsellor,  Friend.  It 
is  an  altar,  with  the  parents  as  priest  and 
priestess,  and  the  impression  is  never  lost 
on  the  children. 

2.  It  stands  for  the  historical  consciousness 
of  the  Jewish  people,  being  thus  a  school  of 
knowledge  and  loyalty.  Each  prayer  and 
ceremony,  each  festival  and  traditional  ob- 
servance, all  have  a  meaning  and  a  history 
which  the  parent  is  commanded  to  make 


The  Jewish  Home  79 

known  to  the  child  as  the  highest  duty.  These 
recall  the  past  with  wonderful  vividness  and 
become  eloquent  object-lessons,  as  scenes  of 
defeat  or  triumph,  of  the  glory  of  national 
independence  or  the  shame  of  exile  are  de- 
picted. The  race-consciousness  is  thus  early 
developed,  and  has  something  ennobling  in 
its  call  to  loyalty  and  sense  of  kinship  with 
the  leaders  who  have  passed  away.  Thus, 
from  childhood  the  boy  and  girl  learn  the 
story  of  their  people.  As  they  witness  the 
Passover  ceremonies,  the  centuries  of  serfdom 
in  Egypt — a  dim  forecast  of  later  serfdom  in 
modern  lands  like  Russia  and  Roumania — 
flash  before  their  vision,  and  how  genuine  is 
the  feeling  of  gratitude!  As  they  learn  the 
graceful  lessons  of  Tabernacles,  the  harvest 
festival,  when,  amid  thanksgivings  for  the 
fruits  of  the  season,  they  are  to  remember 
the  lowly  huts  wherein  their  ancestors  so- 
journed when  emigrants  from  Egypt,  are 
they  not  taught  humility  and  the  law  of 
modest  living?  When  they  light  the  lights 
on  the  feast  of  Dedication,  the  era  of  the 
Maccabees  is  brought  close  to  our  time,  in- 
spiring them  to  be  loyal  to  their  religious 
duties,  whatever  the  obstacle.  Hence  the 


8o  What  Is  Judaism? 

home  is  a  place   both   of   worship   and   of 
instruction. 

3.  It  stands  for  the  unities  of  family  life — 
those  essential  virtues  which  bless  humanity 
and  sanctify  the  home.  Nothing  can  surpass 
the  affection,  the  mutual  helpfulness,  the 
sentiment  of  reverence  that  unify  the  typical 
Jewish  household.  Parents  and  children  vie 
with  each  other  in  intensifying  and  deepening 
the  atmosphere  of  love.  Under  such  condi- 
tions, happiness  can  result  even  if  there  is  an 
absence  of  wealth  and  glitter,  and  the  quiet, 
gentle  life  is  preferred  to  social  extravagance. 
The  spirit  of  domestic  love  which  permeates 
"The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night"  uncon- 
sciously suggests  the  Jewish  home — the  ties 
that  bind  parents  and  children  are  enduring 
in  childhood  and  maturity,  stretching  out 
through  every  experience.  In  the  ambitions 
of  their  sons  and  daughters,  in  their  tasks 
and  troubles,  the  parents  show  the  keenest 
sympathy,  always  their  patient  and  kindly 
advisers,  ever  spurring  them  on  in  their 
studies  and  pursuits,  and  placing  before  them 
the  loftiest  ideals.  And,  in  turn,  the  child 
has  respect  and  reverence  for  the  parent, 
makes  rapid  progress  in  school,  largely  be- 


The  Jewish  Home  81 

cause  of  parental  interest,  and  develops 
steadily  along  helpful  lines  under  the  impetus 
of  a  cultured  home. 

Need  it  be  surprising,  then,  if  the  Jewish 
home  stands  for  such  vital  factors,  that  its 
influence  should  be  so  unmistakably  reflected 
in  the  status  of  the  Jew — in  his  character, 
aims,  acquirements,  ideals?  If  in  the  past 
that  home  was  a  preservative,  nourishing  and 
shielding  the  most  beautiful  virtues,  and  furn- 
ishing examples  of  domestic  peace  and  purity 
in  ages  when  courts  were  dissolute  and  peo- 
ple were  given  over  to  coarse  amusements 
and  degrading  superstitions,  is  it  to  be 
wondered  at  that  its  influence  proves  so 
salutary  in  our  era?  It  still  has  power  to 
preserve  from  fashionable  vices,  to  insure 
marriage  sanctity,  to  inculcate  habits  of  self- 
restraint  and  self-control.  The  most  formid- 
able of  present-day  evils  are  intemperance 
and  divorce,  and  these  have  reached  pro- 
portions that  are  ominous  for  the  future. 
Now,  there  are  no  statistics  as  to  intemper- 
ance among  Jews,  simply  because  cases  are 
so  infrequent ;  and  it  may  safely  be  affirmed 
that  a  Jewish  drunkard  is  a  rarity,  and  still 
rarer  any  instance  where  a  home  has  been 

6 


82  What  Is  Judaism? 

destroyed  by  a  drunken  parent.  There  is  an 
innate  horror  of  excesses  and  vicious  living — 
the  home  example  has  instilled  the  lesson  of 
self-control  and  moderation.  Undoubtedly 
the  dietary  laws  have  accustomed  the  Jew 
to  habits  of  self-restraint.  It  must  not  be 
imagined,  however,  that  his  home  atmosphere 
is  one  of  repression,  of  gloom,  of  asceticism ; 
it  is  just  the  reverse,  and  hence  there  is  little 
danger  of  swinging  to  the  opposite  extreme 
in  later  years.  As  to  the  divorce  evil,  here, 
too,  there  is  a  suggestive  absence  of  data  for 
generalisation;  but  instances  are  exceedingly 
rare,  especially  where  traditional  principles 
are  essentially  maintained.  No  apprehension 
need  be  felt,  under  such  safeguards,  that  the 
evil  can  ever  gain  a  firm  foothold  in  repre- 
sentative Jewish  circles. 

The  subject  now  presents  itself  as  to 
Christianity's  influence  on  the  Jewish  home, 
and  as  to  any  recognition  of  its  worth.  The 
thoughtful,  intelligent  Jewish  home  cannot 
but  acknowledge  elements  in  the  Christian 
religion  and  practice  which  make  for  human 
betterment,  and  which  here  on  American  soil 
have  such  magnificent  expression  in  agencies 
that  uplift  and  refine.  Of  course,  this  is  a 


The  Jewish  Home  83 

matter  which,  if  discussed  at  too  great  length, 
might  lead  one  into  the  labyrinth  of  theology 
and  Scriptural  interpretation.  Without  hesi- 
tation, the  Jew  accepts  the  spirit  of  the  new 
movement  which  emphasises  the  central 
unities  of  all  religions,  whatever  are  the 
points  of  disagreement  that  set  the  creeds 
apart.  He  has  too  long  suffered  from  the 
narrowness  of  others  to  cherish  the  narrow 
outlook.  He  feels  the  borderland  widening 
and  does  his  duty,  when  he  consistently  can, 
to  bridge  over  the  chasm  and  soften  old-time 
asperities.  The  Ghetto  was  not  originally  a 
Jewish  creation,  but  was  forced  upon  the  Jew 
with  the  gaberdine  and  the  yellow  badge; 
and  he  is  held  responsible  for  an  exclusiveness 
that  is  not  inherent  in  Judaism,  for  a  hateful 
and  bigoted  point  of  view  which  is  to  be 
credited  to  the  persecutor,  not  to  the  per- 
secuted. To-day  the  Jewish  home  is  as  open 
as  was  Abraham's  tent  in  the  legend.  There 
is  no  uplifted  spear  at  the  portal,  no  hostile 
air  within,  but  the  spirit  of  the  Mosaic  com- 
mand, "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself,"  and  of  the  Hebrew  prophet's 
declaration,  "My  house  shall  be  a  house  of 
prayer  for  all  nations."  The  broad  teachings 


84  What  Is  Judaism? 

of  the  Jewish  home,  its  kindly  attitude 
towards  mankind,  find  eloquent  expression, 
not  in  mere  sentimental  phrases,  but  in  the 
growing  tendency  of  Israelites  to  bequeath 
gifts  to  education  and  charity,  without  dis- 
tinction of  creed. 

In  this  analysis  of  the  principles  for  which 
the  Jewish  home  stands,  there  has  been  no 
conscious  exaggeration.  Traits  have  not 
been  idealised,  nor  doctrines  too  broadly 
interpreted.  In  fact,  a  certain  restraint  has 
been  felt,  as  if  one  were  reluctant  to  describe 
its  atmosphere,  for  it  courts  no  publicity  or 
recognition — a  restraint,  perhaps,  which  has 
often  led  to  a  want  of  requisite  emphasis  here 
and  there.  The  genial  culture  that  prevails, 
the  refinement  and  simplicity  which  are 
characteristic,  it  has  been  shown,  are  com- 
bined with  a  notable  breadth  of  view.  It  is 
more  than  a  mere  dwelling,  a  place  to  eat  and 
sleep  which  is  often  regarded  as  a  synonym 
for  home — it  is  school,  altar,  shrine.  Here 
the  child  is  taught  reverence  and  his  elder, 
self-control.  Here  education  is  held  to  be  the 
truest  and  most  permanent  form  of  wealth, 
and  life  considered  but  preparation  for  higher 
existence.  Here  religion  is  associated  with 


The  Jewish  Home  85 

daily  conduct,  and  some  self-sacrifice  is  de- 
manded. Here  it  is  constantly  taught  that 
all  religions  which  make  for  goodness  are 
divine,  and  the  pious  of  all  creeds  are  sharers 
in  future  bliss.  The  universal  elements  in 
the  olden  faith  are  emphasised  in  the  broad- 
ening and  more  helpful  tendencies  of  the 
time.  Certain  picturesque  elements  when 
the  environment  was  more  exclusive  may 
have  passed  away,  but  enough  survives  to 
make  it  a  permanent  factor  for  good  and  an 
object-lesson  to  the  stranger  without  the 
gates. 


CHAPTER  VII 

WHAT   IS  JEWISH   HISTORY? 

IT  is  generally  held  that  the  history  of  the 
Jews  ended  with  the  fall  of  Jerusalem; 
the  fact  is,  however,  that  it  really  began  from 
that  date,  as  the  Jew  lost  a  little  strip  of  soil 
and  gained  contact  with  the  world  instead. 
In  other  words,  instead  of  continuing  as  a 
petty  Eastern  dependency,  with  its  narrow 
limitations,  the  Jew  became  from  that  time 
an  international  factor.  Long  before  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  a  change  had 
become  inevitable,  as  the  Jews,  after  the 
captivity  in  Babylon,  fell  under  the  sway  of 
Egypt,  Syria,  and  Rome.  The  periods  of 
independence  after  the  return  under  Ezra, 
and,  later,  under  the  Maccabees,  were  brief 
and  transient. 

Considering  Palestine  merely  as  a  kingdom, 
and  from  the  political  point  of  view  alone,  it 
is  clear  that  its  conquest  could  not  long  have 

86 


What  Is  Jewish  History?        87 

been  delayed.  Its  position  was  too  tempting 
to  escape  notice;  and  the  stronger  it  grew 
the  more  inevitable  became  its  vassalage  to 
one  of  the  great  Powers  that  then,  as  such 
Powers  do  now,  swallowed  up  the  small 
nations.  The  game  played  in  Bible  times  by 
Assyria,  Babylonia,  and  Egypt  was  con- 
tinued in  later  centuries — in  the  era  repre- 
sented by  the  hiatus  between  the  Testaments 
—by  Persia,  Syria,  and  Rome,  particularly 
when  the  successors  of  Alexander  the  Great 
fought  for  supremacy.  Palestine  was  prac- 
tically in  the  position  of  Poland,  when  the 
latter  proved  so  choice  a  morsel  for  Prussia, 
Austria,  and  Russia  to  divide  between  them 
towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Now  was  to  begin  the  real  history  of  the 
Jew,  with  all  its  lights  and  shadows  in  the 
lands  of  his  dispersion;  and,  because  he 
carried  a  very  old  book  with  him,  his  Law 
and  his  Prophets,  he  was  enabled  to  be  at 
home  everywhere  and  become  a  good  citizen 
in  any  land  that  assured  him  civil  and 
religious  freedom. 

Many  interesting  points  are  connected 
with  the  Jews'  dispersion  which  are  never 
touched  upon  in  school  histories  and  hence 


88  What  Is  Judaism? 

are  probably  unknown  to  the  general  reader. 
In  the  first  place,  the  extent  and  duration  of 
his  wanderings  are  almost  incredible  at  this 
date.  Call  it  a  migration,  rather  than  a 
wandering,  and  a  better  idea  can  be  given  of 
the  spirit  of  Jewish  history,  which  has  been 
a  series  of  migrations,  voluntary  and  com- 
pulsory. In  this  respect,  the  Jew  is  no  ex- 
ception to  the  general  law  upon  which  our 
modern  civilisation  is  based,  which  is  that 
of  migration.  Language,  handicraft,  trade, 
culture,  all  that  we  term  the  fruits  of  civilisa- 
tion, are  largely,  if  not  wholly,  due  to  the 
migration  of  peoples  from  land  to  land, 
clime  to  clime,  from  the  mountains  to  the 
plains,  as  a  more  favourable  home  was 
sought,  and  as  race  and  tribe  yielded  to  the 
advance  of  the  stronger.  The  Jew's  ceaseless 
migrations  wonderfully  tended  to  his  vitality, 
and  developed  him  into  a  cosmopolitan,  with 
his  creed  to-day  more  universal  and  his  in- 
fluence wider  than  was  possible  in  the  days 
of  his  beginnings  on  Palestinian  soil. 

Now  whither  did  he  migrate,  when  the 
Roman  plough  was  driven  over  the  site  of 
Jerusalem?  He  had  been  used  to  wandering 
before  that  date — he  could  be  found  in  large 


What  Is  Jewish  History?        89 

numbers  in  Egypt,  in  Greece,  in  Italy,  in 
Asia  Minor;  but  now  he  had  to  seek  a  wider 
home.  In  the  West,  he  followed  the  Roman 
soldier  along  the  Rhine,  in  Gaul,  in  the  for- 
ests of  Bohemia.  Undoubtedly  the  Jew's 
earlier  appearance  in  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  and 
Rome  had  much  to  do  with  the  rapid  rise  of 
the  Church,  for  he  was  beginning  to  famil- 
iarise the  heathen  world  with  the  Scriptures 
and  thus  prepare  the  ground  for  Christianity. 
In  the  East,  he  went  to  Persia,  Arabia,  and 
India,  penetrating  the  farthest  realms  of  the 
Orient.  His  presence  in  Arabia  had  much  to 
do  with  the  rise  of  Islam,  for  Mahomet  drew 
much  of  his  inspiration  from  the  Bible  and 
the  lore  of  the  rabbis. 

What  was  his  occupation  in  those  early 
centuries  preliminary  to  the  so-called  Dark 
and  Middle  Ages?  In  Rome,  the  catacombs, 
with  their  Jewish  and  Christian  emblems 
rescued  within  a  few  decades  from  a  sleep  of 
nearly  two  thousand  years,  show  that  both 
Jew  and  Christian,  exposed  alike  to  pitiless 
persecutions,  fled  underground  to  hold  re- 
ligious worship  and  bury  their  dead.  In 
favourable  times,  however,  the  Jew  emerged 
from  seclusion  and,  thanks  to  his  genius  for 


90  What  Is  Judaism? 

language  due  to  early  education  and  his 
aptitude  for  trade,  he  became  an  inter- 
mediary between  Europe  and  the  Orient,  not 
only  in  the  world  of  commerce,  but  also  in 
the  world  of  thought.  His  caravans  tapped 
the  richest  lands  of  the  Far  East,  bearing 
spices,  silks,  gems,  fruit,  etc.,  for  the  Western 
market.  He  was  to  reveal  as  well  the  trea- 
sures of  Greece  and  India,  and  in  the  role  of 
translator  he  opened  new  vistas  of  philo- 
sophy, science,  and  folk-lore. 

Jewish  history  tells  a  story  of  almost 
constant  persecutions — from  the  era  of  Jus- 
tinian to  that  of  the  latest  czar.  The 
expulsions  have  been  harrowing,  from  Eng- 
land (1290),  from  France  (1181),  from 
Spain  (1492),  from  cities  and  smaller  king- 
doms with  ever-increasing  hardships.  No 
wonder  that  the  legend  of  Cartophilus,  the 
Roman  soldier,  first  told  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  became  known  as  that  of  the  Wan- 
dering or  Everlasting  Jew;  for  the  spectacle 
of  hosts  of  Jews  ever  moving  from  place  to 
place  was  a  common  one  in  those  centuries, 
and  it  seemed  to  be  regarded  as  a  duty,  by 
rulers  and  the  people,  to  intensify  the  curse, 
and  thus  by  the  most  incredible  enactments 


What  Is  Jewish  History?        91 

help  Providence  to  humiliate  and  degrade 
the  luckless  wanderers.  They  suffered  nu- 
merous restrictions  in  trade,  occupation, 
dress,  and  dwelling.  A  Jew-badge,  consisting 
usually  of  a  yellow  bit  of  cloth,  wheel-shaped, 
was  affixed  to  the  garment  of  old  and  young, 
while  pointed  hats  were  worn.  They  had 
their  own  special  quarters,  often  designedly 
in  the  most  unsavoury  section  of  the  cities, 
—the  Ghetto  was  general  throughout  Europe 
and  is  still  preserved  in  the  Mellah  of 
Morocco.  Intermarriage  with  the  Christian 
was  forbidden,  the  employment  by  them  of 
Christian  servants  was  prohibited;  in  some 
countries  the  annual  number  of  marriages 
among  themselves  was  limited  by  law. 

The  expulsion  from  Spain,  a  land  associated 
with  the  fairest  memories,  in  which  Jews  had 
attained  high  rank  in  literature,  science,  and 
statesmanship,  was  the  bitterest  blow  they 
endured  since  the  fall  of  Jerusalem.  During 
Torquemada's  fifteen  years  in  office  as  head 
of  the  Inquisition,  eight  thousand  Jews  and 
Maranos — the  latter  were  pseudo-converts — 
were  put  to  death,  and  more  than  six  thou- 
sand in  effigy,  while  two  hundred  thousand 
Jews  went  ultimately  into  exile  in  Central 


92  What  Is  Judaism? 

Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  settling  chiefly  in 
Poland  and  Turkey,  which  were  then  hospit- 
able to  them,  and  also  in  Holland,  Brazil,  and 
the  West  Indies,  whence  a  small  band  ap- 
peared as  suppliants  at  New  Amsterdam  in 
1654,  and  received  the  privilege  of  entry  from 
Peter  Stuyvesant  on  condition  that  they 
would  take  care  of  their  poor. 

There  were  occasional  pauses,  however, 
when  they  enjoyed  a  large  measure  of  happi- 
ness and  security.  Behind  the  Ghetto  gates 
their  homes  were  altars,  their  domestic  lives 
pure,  their  schools  vigorously  upheld,  and 
their  synagogues  formed  a  sovereignty  of 
their  own.  Forgetting  the  shameless  in- 
dignities practised  on  them,  they  wrote  and 
taught,  worked  and  planned,  and  numbered 
their  poets  and  scholars  even  in  troublous 
times.  Their  buoyancy  was  irresistible — 
heart  and  brain  were  kept  fresh  and  strong 
by  study  and  aspiration.  They  were  phy- 
sicians, too,  to  Court  and  Church ;  and  if  no 
other  profession  was  open  to  them,  often  as 
financial  agents  they  controlled  the  sinews  of 
war  and  rendered  service  to  the  state.  They 
were  not  always  prudent,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, and  an  occasional  tendency  to  osten- 


What  Is  Jewish  History?        93 

tation  aroused  public  odium,  while  legend 
exaggerated  their  wealth  until  the  mob 
thought  it  a  duty  to  despoil  them  in  an  era 
of  dangerous  popular  superstition.  As  kings 
and  prelates  were  often  greatly  indebted  to 
the  Jews,  the  easiest  way  to  settle  accounts 
was  to  excite  the  mob  against  them  and  thus 
destroy  all  evidences  of  indebtedness. 

Apart  from  occasional  popular  outbreaks, 
often  checked  by  friendly  prince  or  bishop, 
Ghetto  existence  was  uneventful.  The  syna- 
gogue was  the  centre  of  communal  life,  the 
Sabbath  and  festivals  were  joyously  cele- 
brated. The  Jew  believed  that  his  trials 
were  divinely  ordained  and  for  a  wise  purpose ; 
while  hope  in  a  Messiah  was  so  vivid  that 
now  and  then  pseudo-Messiahs  were  wel- 
comed and  caused  excitement  in  Europe  and 
the  East,  even  if  their  claims  failed  of 
realisation.  Often  when  news  reached  the 
Ghetto  of  the  appearance  of  such  an  impostor, 
many  Jews  would  sell  their  goods  to  secure 
funds  to  journey  to  Palestine  to  meet  the 
deliverer,  so  naive  was  their  faith.  And  yet 
this  was  centuries  before  the  Millerite  excite- 
ment in  New  England  and  the  appearance  of 
Dowie,  the  so-called  prophet,  in  Chicago. 


94  What  Is  Judaism? 

The  Jews  were  always  more  or  less  in- 
fluenced by  their  environment,  however 
inflexible  their  conservatism.  Like  their  con- 
temporaries, they  had  their  heresies  and 
heretics,  but  in  modest  fashion.  Thus  the 
Karaites  in  the  eighth  century  represented 
marked  dissent  from  the  parent  stock,  while 
the  Hasidim  or  the  pietists  of  Poland,  who 
sprang  into  existence  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  met  hostile  treatment 
from  the  rabbis  of  the  traditional  school. 
The  rise  of  the  Cabala  is  another  illustration 
of  Jewish  intellectual  fertility,  while  Moses 
Mendelssohn  (1740-93)  is  regarded  as  be- 
ginning the  movement  towards  emancipation 
from  within,  which  kept  pace  with  civic 
emancipation  in  the  states  of  Europe.  Vari- 
eties of  conservative  and  reformer,  radical 
and  Zionist  of  different  degrees  of  intensity, 
are  found  to-day  in  Jewry, — the  conflict  of 
opinion  dates  from  the  Talmudic  age,  when 
parties  and  partisans  debated  hotly  in  the 
schools  of  Palestine  and  Babylonia.  The 
Jew  was  never  mentally  dormant;  he  pre- 
ferred aberration  to  torpor. 

The  prescriptive  measures  of  State  and 
Church  from  the  early  centuries  had  prac- 


What  Is  Jewish  History?        95 

tically  the  aim  in  view  attributed  to  a  dis- 
tinguished Russian  official  who  recently  died, 
but  not  at  the  hands  of  an  assassin.  It  was 
to  drive  a  third  of  the  Jews  to  death,  a  third 
to  exile,  and  a  third  to  the  Church.  It  is 
possible  that  this  computation  is  correct, 
although  there  are  no  exact  statistics  to  con- 
firm it.  Doubtless  many  Jews  sought 
security  by  conversion,  while  intermarriage 
had  its  natural  effect  in  withdrawals  from 
Judaism.  Jewish  and  princely  blood  have 
often  commingled,  especially  in  Spain.  No 
more  thrilling  chapter  is  found  in  Jewish 
history  than  that  which  records  the  fate  of 
the  Maranos  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  the 
majority  of  whom  publicly  professed  Christ- 
ianity and  yet  remained  Jews  in  private. 
Against  them  the  mob  was  embittered  more 
than  against  their  former  brethren,  and  un- 
utterably cruel  were  the  sufferings  they  had 
to  undergo.  Hundreds,  nay  thousands,  met 
death  at  the  stake  rather  than  renounce  in 
reality  their  olden  faith ;  while  as  emigrants, 
like  the  Huguenots,  they  added  to  the  wealth 
of  their  adopted  country  and  became  leaders 
in  varied  lines — finance,  literature,  art,  and 
statecraft. 


96  What  Is  Judaism? 

The  history  of  the  Jews  has  not  ended;  it 
is  bound  up  with  the  history  of  civilisation. 
Judging,  however,  by  the  spirit  of  Israel's 
past,  his  reverence  for  his  Book  and  its 
traditions,  as  well  as  his  love  for  country  and 
humanity,  breadth  of  view  and  mental 
alertness,  he  can  anticipate  the  future  with 
every  confidence.  The  world  is  advancing 
in  reality  and  the  tribunal  of  The  Hague 
dimly  points  to  an  era  of  human  brotherhood, 
when  the  Jewish  prophet's  vision  of  universal 
peace  shall  be  realised. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WHAT   IS  JEWISH  LITERATURE? 

T  F  you  should  ask  the  average  man  or  woman, 
1  What  is  Jewish  literature?  you  would 
receive,  probably,  the  one  answer,  It  is  the 
Old  Testament;  and  perhaps  there  would  be 
a  further  reply,  It  is  the  Hebrew  prayer-book. 
That  it  is  a  fairly  comprehensive  term,  which 
includes  the  rise  and  development  of  a  vast, 
all-embracing  literature,  extending  over  two 
or  three  thousand  years,  on  every  conceivable 
topic,  and  touched  by  the  spirit  of  each 
century,  the  varied  currents  of  changing 
civilisations,  is  a  view  of  the  subject  which 
might  arouse  defiant  doubt.  And  yet  it  is 
the  truth,  without  a  shred  of  romance  or 
exaggeration. 

The  reason  for  such  skepticism  is  not  far 

to  seek.    It  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that 

all   literatures    but   Jewish    are    studied   in 

the   schools.      Jewish  literature  remains  an 

7  97 


98  What  Is  Judaism? 

unknown  realm,  and  what  the  rabbis  thought 
and  wrote,  what  the  sages  in  all  epochs 
planned  and  accomplished,  are  regarded  as 
antiquarian — material  for  your  literary  fossil, 
or  dry  as  dust,  but  not  for  the  rest  of  us. 
Some  people  have  a  vague  idea  that  the  rabbis 
were  mere  pedants  and  theologians  and  that 
their  work  is  utterly  out  of  touch  with  the 
present  age,  as  much  as  the  curious  messages 
which  cuneiform  tablets  bear  from  buried 
cities  of  primitive  times. 

There  could  be  no  greater  error.  Theology 
is  by  no  means  the  only  note  in  Jewish 
literature,  which  includes  ethics,  history, 
folk-lore,  science, — medical,  physical,  math- 
ematical,— poetry,  philosophy,  with  plenti- 
ful humour  to  relieve  soberness  and  pathos. 
Such  was  the  buoyancy  of  the  rabbis,  such 
their  receptiveness  and  plastic  character, 
despite  a  natural  conservative  bias,  that  their 
literature  clearly  reflects  the  movements  of 
every  age,  of  whose  culture  and  progress  they 
were  far  from  being  passive  spectators.  And 
just  as  their  constant  migrations  over  so  long 
a  period  insured  their  physical  vitality,  as 
they  overcame  obstacles  and  unfavourable 
conditions,  so  their  continuous  contact  with 


What  Is  Jewish  Literature  ?      99 

new  epochs  of  culture,  now  in  Persia,  now 
Arabia,  now  Spain,  now  Central  Europe,  here 
in  Italy  and  there  in  Poland :  whether  it  was 
the  Renaissance  or  the  Reformation,  the  age 
of  feudalism  or  the  age  of  steam,  this  con- 
tinuity of  impressions  and  influences  gave 
freshness  and  vigour  to  their  intellects.  Their 
view-point  had  to  be  broadened,  if  uncon- 
sciously, and  if  the  rabbis  in  a  measure 
influenced  their  times,  they  were  no  less 
unconsciously  influenced  in  turn.  The  ex- 
change was  well  maintained. 

What,  then,  is  Jewish  literature?  What 
are  its  distinctive  elements  and  epochs? 
There  is  but  little  to  help  the  general  reader 
to  form  an  opinion.  Let  us  compare  it  to  a 
building  of  imposing  proportions.  Its  founda- 
tion is  the  Old  Testament;  upon  that, 
undoubtedly,  the  entire  structure  is  reared, 
although  the  subject-matter  from  story  to 
story  is  exceedingly  varied,  and  includes  all 
lines  of  thought.  The  study  of  the  Hebrew 
Law  and  Prophets,  so  intimately  connected 
with  the  life  and  institutions  of  the  people, 
gave  rise  to  the  beginnings  of  a  literature  out 
of  which  was  evolved  the  earliest  rabbinical 
era,  after  the  return  from  Babylonian  cap- 


ioo  What  Is  Judaism  ? 

tivity  under  Ezra.  It  was  the  era  of  the 
scribes,  who,  with  their  successors,  strove  to 
compete  with  changes  in  language  and  con- 
dition, and  sought  to  preserve  the  Jew's 
solidarity  by  increased  study  of  the  law  and 
the  traditions  in  all  their  minute  ramifica- 
tions. So  with  the  gradual  dawn  of  Roman 
supremacy,  there  ensued  a  closer  interpreta- 
tion of  doctrine  and  usage.  Thus  arose  the 
Mishna,  which  was  a  code  of  decisions 
embodying  the  oral  law,  and  later  its  comple- 
ment or  commentary,  the  Gemara,  which 
together  formed  the  Talmud,  as  the  schools 
of  the  rabbis  spread  in  Palestine  and  Baby- 
lonia and  the  need  of  an  authoritative  codex 
became  more  and  more  felt  in  the  centuries 
after  Jerusalem's  fall.  The  Talmud  is  essen- 
tially a  legal  code,  a  digest,  a  concise  com- 
pilation of  debates  and  discussions,  in  which 
the  traditional  rule  is  illustrated  from  many 
diverse  points  of  view.  The  work  contains, 
besides  abstract  law  principles,  legends  in 
abundance,  philosophy,  history,  archaeology, 
medicine,  hygiene,  and  the  rest,  with  light 
and  shade  peculiar  to  such  a  collection  which 
is  no  man's  creation,  but  that  of  hundreds  of 
sages  stretching  over  seven  hundred  years. 


What  Is  Jewish  Literature  ?    101 

A  colossal  literature  has  been  developed  from 
the  Talmud,  to  which  additions  are  steadily 
made  in  different  languages. 

A  second  phase  of  Jewish  literature  began 
just  as  foreign  influences  were  producing  a 
new  epoch  in  Palestine,  and  for  several 
centuries  developed  as  the  Jewish  Hellenic. 
Springing  from  the  Greek  translation  of  the 
Old  Testament — the  Septuagint — Alexandria 
formed  the  centre  of  Jewish  intellectual  life, 
and  men  like  Philo,  Aristeas,  Aristobulus, 
Ezekielos,  Eupolemos,  philosophers,  drama- 
tists, historians,  illustrated  the  versatility  of 
the  Jewish  brain  when  wrestling  with  new 
conditions  and  Greek  culture. 

Side  by  side  with  the  literature  of  the 
Talmud  there  developed  the  literature  of  the 
Midrash,  vast  in  extent  and  distinctive  in 
character.  This  was  homiletic  in  style,  and 
proves  the  early  familiarity  of  the  rabbis  with 
the  art  of  preaching.  Extending  over  prac- 
tically the  entire  Old  Testament,  the  Midrash 
is  part  parable,  part  ethics,  now  revealing 
exquisite  poetical  beauty  and  now  deep  phil- 
osophical insight.  It  is  commentary  and 
illustration,  often  fantastic  and  strained,  yet 
the  wildest  hyperbole  can  be  made  to  yield 


102  What  Is  Judaism? 

some  positive  truth.  That,  in  centuries  of 
national  disaster  and  unsettled  political 
conditions,  the  rabbis  could  have  produced 
such  marvellous  material,  is  a  proof  at  least 
of  their  versatility.  The  compilations  of 
these  Midrashim  date  from  about  700,  not 
long  after  the  Talmud  had  reached  its  close. 
A  new  epoch  was  now  to  arise — that  of  the 
Spanish-Arabic,  exactly  as  ages  before  the 
Greek  era  had  spurred  on  Jewish  thought. 
With  avidity  the  Jews  seized  hold  of  Arabic 
culture  and  did  their  share  as  intermediaries 
between  the  learning  of  the  Orient  and  the 
Occident.  A  host  of  scholars  in  varied  lines — 
theology,  ethics,  history,  law,  medicine, 
exegesis,  astronomy,  etc. — now  arose.  As 
Arabic  became  the  dominant  type,  the  Jew 
rapidly  acquired  fluency  in  his  new  vernacu- 
lar. A  particularly  important  branch  of 
Jewish-Arabic  literature  is  that  of  philosophy, 
works  of  permanent  value  being  produced. 
When  Spain  became  the  seat  of  Arabic 
civilisation,  a  golden  age  of  Jewish  literature 
developed — with  names  like  Gabirol,  Judah 
Halle vi,  Moses  ibn  Ezra,  and  Alcharisi.  If 
the  models  in  most  cases  were  Arabic,  the 
spirit  was  Jewish  to  the  core,  and  their  poems 


What  Is  Jewish  Literature  ?     103 

have  become  classic.  The  themes  were  not 
always  religious — satire,  romance,  and  fable 
formed  the  subject-matter  of  many  produc- 
tions. Santob  de  Carrion  and  Suskind  von 
Trimberg  were  Spanish  songster  and  German 
minnesinger  respectively,  while  Immanuel 
ben  Solomon  of  Rome,  Dante's  friend,  wrote 
a  Hebrew  travesty  of  the  Divina  Corn- 
media.  Of  the  philosophic  intellects  of  this 
period,  Maimonides  is  the  chief.  His  Guide 
to  the  Perplexed  had  its  influence  on  Spi- 
noza, while  mediaeval  scholasticism  must 
acknowledge  its  debt  to  Jewish  thinkers. 
In  the  same  period  was  a  long  list  of  famous 
biblical  interpreters,  like  Rashi  in  France, 
and  Abraham  ibn  Ezra  in  Spain. 

A  further  branch  of  Jewish  literature  in 
this  era  was  devoted  to  chronicles  and 
travels.  The  writers  were  not  always  vera- 
cious, it  must  be  confessed,  but  some  are 
sufficiently  authentic  for  their  purpose,  and 
none  was  as  unreliable  as  Sir  John  Man- 
deville.  Of  these  authors,  the  name  of 
Benjamin  of  Tudela  is,  perhaps,  the  best 
known  to  the  general  reader.  Often  amid 
scenes  of  bloodshed  they  penned  their  records, 
while  their  travels  were  undergone  with 


104  What  Is  Judaism? 

pathetic  uncertainty,  which  made  impossible 
any  great  literary  charm. 

With  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
when  the  Spanish-Arabic  period  ended  in 
exile  and  death  for  the  Jews  of  Spain,  an 
epoch  of  decline  followed,  relieved  here  and 
there  by  names  of  eminence,  but  lasting  for 
fully  three  centuries.  The  art  of  printing,  the 
dawn  of  Humanism,  and  the  Reformation, 
were  full  of  significance  for  Jewish  literature, 
while  the  speculations  of  the  Cabala  fas- 
cinated many  Jewish  thinkers.  One  literary 
work  of  general  interest  has  come  down  to  us 
from  this  era — Penini's  Contemplation  of 
the  World  which  received,  in  German  trans- 
lation, praise  from  Lessing  and  Goethe. 
Further  writers  worthy  of  mention  were 
Crescas  and  Albo,  philosophers ;  Isaac  Abar- 
banel,  biblical  commentator;  Abraham 
Zacuto,  literary  historian  and  astronomer; 
Nagara,  the  versatile  poet,  to  name  only  a 
few.  Italy  became  prominent  in  Hebrew 
learning,  with  Elias  Levita  and  Elias  del 
Medigo  among  the  leaders,  while  Joseph 
Cohen  writes  The  Vale  of  Weeping,  a 
chronicle  of  troublous  times,  and  Deborah 
Ascarelli  and  Sara  Copia  Sullam  head  the 


What  Is  Jewish  Literature  ?    105 

list  of  literary  Jewesses.  Other  Italian  Jew- 
ish writers  are  Azariah  de  Rossi,  whose 
researches  are  still  of  value;  Leo  de  Modena, 
and  Azariah  Figo,  whose  sermons  are  models 
in  their  way;  and  Moses  Chaim  Luzzatto, 
who  imitated  in  Hebrew  Guarini's  pastorals 
and  became  a  hapless  mystic.  His  Hebrew 
poems  and  dramas  are  classic  and  show  how 
flexible  a  language  is  Hebrew  when  genius 
wields  the  pen. 

Other  names,  probably  of  less  interest, 
could  be  mentioned  of  scholars  in  Poland,  in 
Holland  (with  Spinoza  and  Manasseh  ben 
Israel),  and  in  Germany,  from  the  sixteenth, 
seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries.  It 
remains  to  glance  briefly  at  the  latest  though 
not  the  last  period  in  Jewish  literature,  from 
the  era  of  Mendelssohn  in  Germany,  towards 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  to  our 
time.  Apart  from  a  revival  of  Hebrew 
literature,  which  was  long  maintained,  the 
new  period  opened  with  a  German  translation 
of  the  Old  Testament — ushering  in  a  re- 
naissance in  the  world  of  German  thought  for 
the  Jew.  Zunz,  Rapoport,  Graetz,  Frankel, 
Geiger,  Steinschneider,  are  names  of  inter- 
national fame,  who  have  justified  the 


io6  What  Is  Judaism? 

claims  of  Jewish  literature,  history,  and 
research  to  the  attention  of  scholars.  A 
brilliant  era  followed,  with  illustrious  writers 
in  different  lines — poetry,  philosophy,  his- 
tory, romance,  science,  journalism;  and  the 
productions  of  authors  like  Mosenthal, 
L.  A.  Frankl,  L.  Kompert,  K.  E.  Franzos, 
and  A.  Bernstein  have  attained  permanent 
value.  Nor  must  Heine  be  omitted  from 
the  list,  while  Berthold  Auerbach,  Max 
Ring,  Moritz  Lazarus,  and  H.  Steinthal 
are  to  be  added. 

A  notable  development  of  Jewish  literature 
was  witnessed  in  Russia,  where  a  school  of 
writers  arose  in  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  These  made  Hebrew  the 
vehicle  of  their  prose  and  verse.  Giinzburg, 
A.  B.  and  M.  J.  Lebensohn,  Kalman  Schul- 
man,  Abraham  Mapu  (who  created  the 
Hebrew  novel),  Leon  Gordon,  with  journal- 
ists like  S.  J.  Fuenn,  Slonimsky,  and  Zeder- 
baum,  and  a  long  list  of  younger  men,  have 
shown  the  adaptability  of  Hebrew  as  the 
language  of  poetic  and  philosophic  thought, 
science,  the  novel,  and  the  newspaper. 
Among  noted  works  that  have  been  trans- 
lated into  Hebrew  are  The  Mysteries  of 


What  Is  Jewish  Literature  ?    107 

Paris,  plays  of  Shakespeare,  poems  of 
Schiller  and  Goethe,  and  choice  productions 
from  Longfellow,  Mark  Twain,  Zola,  and 
De  Maupassant. 

Thus  Jewish  literature  is  universal  in  scope 
and  extent.  From  the  scribes,  through  the 
sages  of  the  Talmud,  from  the  Hellenistic 
authors  to  the  scholars  of  the  Babylonian 
academies,  from  the  writers  who  shone  in 
the  Arabic-Spanish  period  to  the  poets  and 
thinkers  of  Italy  and  the  East,  to  the  dawn 
and  development  of  the  modern  epoch  which 
has  witnessed  such  a  remarkable  renaissance 
in  Europe,  Jewish  literature  is  well  worthy 
of  study,  if  only  in  outline.  It  adopts  all 
languages — Hebrew,  Aramaic,  Greek,  Rab- 
binic, Arabic,  Spanish,  Italian,  every  modern 
tongue.  It  is  so  catholic  as  to  be  found 
even  in  popular  jargons,  and  has  reached  a 
special  development  in  Yiddish.  It  echoes 
not  only  the  feelings  of  Israel,  but  the 
inspirations  of  humanity.  It  has  caught  the 
tones  of  all  races  and  climes  for  several 
thousand  years  and  has  the  elements  of 
perpetual  youth.  Why,  then,  should  it  not 
be  given  some  attention  in  our  colleges  and 
seminaries? 


CHAPTER  IX 

IS  JUDAISM  NECESSARY  TO-DAY? 

A  FEW  months  ago,  two  friends  were 
discussing  the  subject  of  the  various 
religions:  the  one  a  Presbyterian,  a  lawyer 
by  profession;  the  other  an  Israelite,  a 
physician  of  repute.  In  the  course  of  the 
conversation  the  lawyer  was  asked  his 
opinion  of  Judaism.  "To  tell  you  frankly," 
the  reply  came,  without  any  hesitation,  "I 
regard  it  as  entirely  unnecessary  to-day. 
The  world  can  get  along  without  it.  Its 
work  ended  long  ago.  All  that  is  good  and 
useful  in  it  has  been  utilised  by  other  creeds." 
When  he  was  further  questioned  to  account 
for  its  survival  he  rejoined:  "Why,  it  is 
purely  an  arrested  development,  interesting 
as  an  archaeological  study,  that  is  all.  Of 
course,  I  admit  that  I  have  met  very  few 
Jews  and  have  read  little,  if  anything,  about 
their  religion  or  history." 
108 


Is  Judaism  Necessary  To-Day?  109 

There  is  nothing  exceptional  or  exaggerated 
in  this  statement.  The  Ilium  fuit  argument 
applied  to  Judaism,  the  view  that  it  is  essen- 
tially an  anachronism  in  the  currents  of  these 
later  centuries  and  in  an  atmosphere  of 
Yankee  notions,  is  by  no  means  rare.  If  it 
is  not  more  frequently  expressed,  possibly 
out  of  motives  of  delicacy,  it  is  held  none  the 
less  tenaciously.  Judaism's  work  is  closed, 
so  it  is  asserted,  sagely;  it  has  no  further 
raison  d'etre.  If  now  and  then  a  Jew  does 
appear  on  the  world's  stage  and  competes 
for  recognition  he  is  as  superfluous  as  would 
be  an  old-time  Etruscan.  He  can  tell  us 
nothing  new.  And  as  for  his  religion,  his 
rites,  customs,  ceremonies,  his  doctrines  and 
literature,  why,  that  is  merely  for  the  museum 
of  antiquities  along  with  other  theological 
pterodactyls.  This  is  not  the  Mesozoic  Age — 
who  wishes  to  breathe  again  the  Judean 
atmosphere? 

That  Judaism  should  be  regarded  as  un- 
necessary is  due  mainly  to  two  special  causes. 
The  first  springs  from  the  density  of  popular 
ignorance.  When  Marlowe  pictured  Barab- 
bas  as  poisoner  of  wells  he  was  merely  giving 
the  popular  idea  of  a  Jew.  When  Shake- 


no  What  Is  Judaism? 

speare  symbolised  in  Shylock  the  spirit  of 
revenge  as  the  Jew's  chief  characteristic 
he  was  also  presenting  the  current  notion — 
any  figure  like  Nathan  the  Wise  or  Daniel 
Deronda,  if  at  all  thinkable  in  that  era, 
would  have  been  hooted  from  the  stage.  With 
the  ages,  naturally,  there  has  been  a  gratify- 
ing improvement  in  the  popular  conception, 
despite  the  cheap  vaudeville  and  the  vulgar 
comic  weekly;  but  how  absurd  and  untrue 
the  caricature  that  still  prevails!  How  can 
it  be  otherwise?  Greece  and  Rome  find  a 
conspicuous  place  in  the  school  text-book — 
the  history  of  the  Jew  is  limited  to  a  few 
pages,  ending  with  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem by  Titus,  when  two  thousand  years 
of  wandering,  a  record  thrilling,  eventful,  of 
far-reaching  consequences,  receives  abso- 
lutely no  mention.  In  standard  works  on 
education  Judaism  is  considered  a  negligible 
quantity,  although  long  before  the  mediasval 
schoolmasters  the  rabbis  were  teachers  of 
what  in  large  measure  might  be  called  the  new 
education.  In  pretentious  volumes  on  the 
history  of  religions  Judaism,  if  discussed  at 
all,  is  restricted  practically  to  the  era  of  the 
Old  Testament,  all  later  developments  being 


Is  Judaism  Necessary  To-Day?  in 

omitted  as  without  historic  significance.  In 
a  recently  issued  work,  devoted  to  what  has 
been  done  in  the  United  States  for  the  year, 
all  sects  and  creeds  being  duly  chronicled, 
no  provision  was  made  in  the  schedule  for 
American  Judaism,  with  two  million  adher- 
ents, so  unnecessary  did  it  appear. 

When  the  scholar,  the  theologian,  the 
historian,  who  certainly  should  foster  the 
broadest  ideals,  are  satisfied  with  partial 
knowledge  and  unjust  discrimination,  what 
wonder  that  the  people  continue  in  their 
ignorance!  The  average  pulpit,  the  teacher 
of  the  multitude,  presents  the  Jew  without 
flesh  and  blood,  a  mere  ghostly  shadow  of  the 
centuries  between  the  Testaments,  an  un- 
substantial echo  of  a  far-away  epoch.  That 
popular  ignorance  is  the  favourite  soil  for 
antipathies,  social  and  religious,  cannot  be 
disputed.  Hence,  when  the  scholar  under- 
rates or  ignores  Judaism  as  a  living  factor  in 
the  world's  betterment,  a  force  to  be  reck- 
oned with  in  the  history  of  civilisation,  he  is 
but  forging  a  link  in  the  chain  of  prejudice, 
with  its  hateful  consequences.  Happily, 
there  are  scholars  not  a  few  who  rise  above 
such  colossal  ignorance  and  are  proud  to 


ii2  What  Is  Judaism? 

exclaim  with  Barthelemy  Saint  Hilaire  in 
Senator  Millaud's  P elites  Pages,  "Never  con- 
quered, always  erect,  as  courageous  as  it  is 
resigned,  Israel  shines  in  the  world  like  a 
torch  throughout  the  ages." 

The  second  contributing  factor  to  present- 
day  ignorance  of  Judaism  has  been  the  Jew 
himself.  While  not  primarily  responsible 
for  the  medieval  Ghetto  into  which  he  was 
cast  like  a  hunted  criminal,  he  is  at  fault  if 
in  lands  that  assure  him  civil  and  religious 
freedom  he  retains  a  trace  of  the  Ghetto 
spirit,  any  aloofness  or  exclusiveness,  any 
peculiarity  or  attitude  that  may  single  him 
out  as  an  alien  for  which  his  religion  and 
not  his  personal  idiosyncrasies  is  blamed.  It 
is  possible,  however,  to  be  too  exacting  in 
this  connection — it  takes  time  to  abandon 
habits  bred  by  centuries  of  oppression.  The 
truly  representative  Israelite  knows  how  to 
discriminate  between  essentials  and  non-es- 
sentials in  his  creed  and  practice,  and,  save 
in  the  synagogue,  is  indistinguishable  in 
character,  motive,  appearance,  manner  from 
his  neighbour  who  goes  to  church.  A  man 
or  woman  of  that  type  enters  zealously  into 
the  life  of  the  general  community,  promotes 


Is  Judaism  Necessary  To-Day?  113 

the  public  welfare,  is  a  useful  citizen  of  the 
commonwealth,  whose  highest  interest  he 
makes  his  own.  If  he  strives  to  advance  art, 
music,  science,  education,  benevolence,  no 
question  of  creed  is  considered.  His  Ameri- 
canism, his  patriotic  fervour,  is  a  vital  part 
of  his  religion.  Men  like  Haym  Salomon, 
who  sacrificed  his  fortune  for  the  American 
cause,  in  the  darkest  period  of  the  Revolution, 
with  a  reckless  disregard  for  collateral  which 
no  financier  of  our  time  would  dream  of 
imitating;  or  Judah  Touro,  who  fought  at 
New  Orleans  under  Jackson  and  devoted  his 
wealth  in  public  and  private  beneficence;  or 
Julius  Hallgarten,  whose  large  bequests  went 
to  education  without  regard  to  race,  creed, 
and  colour;  not  to  allude  to  the  rapidly  in- 
creasing list  of  men  and  women  who  identify 
themselves  with  public  movements  without, 
however,  neglecting  the  appealing  cry  of 
their  needy  brethren  in  the  flesh — such  ex- 
amples are  shining  texts  which  rob  popular 
prejudice  of  much  of  its  sting.  But  many 
have  still  to  discriminate  between  substance 
and  shadow,  reality  and  counterfeit,  in  their 
ancestral  religion  and  its  traditions,  which 
have  become  so  closely  intermingled  that 


H4  What  Is  Judaism? 

more  than  ordinary  heroism  is  required  to 
cut  the  knot.  Until  they  have  learned  the 
lesson,  and  have  abandoned  their  voluntary 
Ghetto,  with  its  narrowness  and  conceit, 
they  have  largely  to  blame  themselves  for 
such  ignorance  and  antipathy  as  are 
encountered. 

Now  waiving  further  consideration  of  the 
two  factors  that  are  mainly  responsible  for 
current  notions  as  to  Judaism,  let  us  briefly 
consider  what  are  the  qualities  in  a  religion 
which  make  it  necessary  to-day.  Let  us 
ignore  for  the  moment  theological  claims  and 
assumptions  that  are  to  be  met  in  the  history 
of  all  creeds  and  which  are  possibly  the  secret 
of  their  weakness  as  well  as  their  strength. 
Let  us  give  precedence  rather  to  the  positive 
and  practical  elements. 

A  religion  must  first  be  rational — it  must 
appeal  to  the  reason  and  not  stultify  human 
intelligence  as  the  fundamental  basis  of 
belief.  It  must  concern  itself  primarily  with 
the  lives  and  welfare  of  its  adherents  on 
earth  and  not  dwell  needlessly  on  the  delights 
and  terrors  of  another  world,  angelic  raptures, 
demonic  frenzies.  Its  ethical  strength  must 
be  without  a  flaw — there  must  be  no  dallying 


Is  Judaism  Necessary  To-Day?  115 

with  the  moral  principle  for  self -aggrandise- 
ment. Its  ultimate  aim  must  be  human 
betterment,  not  the  extirpation  of  all  who 
hold  other  views.  Macaulay  could  not  have 
crystallised  the  matter  more  tersely  when  he 
wrote  that  the  doctrine  of  bigotry  is  simply 
this:  "I  am  in  the  right  and  you  are  in  the 
wrong.  When  you  are  the  stronger  you 
agree  to  tolerate  me,  for  it  is  your  duty  to 
tolerate  truth.  But  when  I  am  the  stronger 
I  shall  persecute  you,  for  it  is  my  duty  to 
persecute  error."  A  religion,  finally,  must 
make  its  followers  better,  more  helpful,  more 
blessed,  so  that  its  influence  shall  be  recog- 
nised more  and  more  for  good. 

Before  we  ask,  How  does  Judaism  meet 
this  definition  of  a  necessary  religion?  (within 
present  limitations  it  is  impossible  to  enter 
more  thoroughly  into  the  subject),  let  us  put 
the  question,  What  is  Judaism?  That  is  the 
crux  of  the  discussion.  It  is  not  the  religion 
of  the  Patriarchs,  the  Pentateuch,  the 
Prophets  only.  It  is  ethical  monotheism 
coloured  by  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people, 
and  is  a  development  ever  continuing  as  that 
people  or  race  or  religious  body  survives  from 
age  to  age,  from  clime  to  clime.  It  is  not 


n6  What  Is  Judaism ? 

restricted  to  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
surroundings  of  Palestine.  That  environment 
marked  only  its  point  of  origin.  As  the  real 
history  of  the  Jew  may  be  said  to  have  begun 
with  the  Roman's  capture  of  Jerusalem,  when 
he  exchanged  a  strip  of  soil  for  the  universe, 
so  his  religion,  which  is  not  Mosaism  or 
Rabbinism,  but  Judaism,  attained  its  greatest 
breadth  when  the  sacrificial  era  closed, 
prayer  became  the  substitute  for  burnt 
offering,  and  school  and  synagogue  spread 
in  every  land.  Ideals  change,  customs  vary, 
opinions  clash,  and  out  of  this  everlasting 
conflict  Judaism  attains  new  life  and  vigour. 
That  is  one  secret  of  its  survival.  The  very 
legalism  which  is  such  a  constituent  part  of 
the  Jewish  religion,  and  which  is  usually 
criticised  as  repressive  and  narrowing,  became 
a  balance-wheel  for  character  and  conduct. 

Naturally,  this  view  will  be  sharply  chal- 
lenged by  those  who  have  made  Judaism  a 
convenient  dummy  or  veritable  taboo.  There 
are  many  who  conscientiously  limit  the 
religion  of  the  Jew  to  the  Old  Testament. 
The  modern  Jew,  they  assert,  is  a  degenerate, 
his  religion  a  counterfeit,  if  not  a  danger  to 
the  children  of  light.  The  testimony  of 


Is  Judaism  Necessary  To-Day?  117 

history,  the  story  of  rabbinical  development, 
with  the  wider  dispersion  after  the  Roman 
triumph,  the  influence  of  the  Talmud,  the 
spread  of  the  schools  East  and  West,  the 
tremendous  upheaval  with  the  discovery  of 
America,  the  Reformation,  the  French  Rev- 
olution; these  have  given  new  form  and 
colour  to  the  Jew's  thought  and  made  the 
Biblical  era  almost  like  his  kindergarten. 
Such  a  view  of  the  situation  is  utterly  ignored 
by  those  who  have  long  preached  Judaism's 
funeral  sermon  and  cannot  understand  why 
its  obsequies  are  indefinitely  postponed. 
Everything  is  ready  but  the  corpse. 

Bearing  in  mind,  then,  this  juster  con- 
ception of  Judaism  as  embracing  every  era 
in  its  history,  past  and  present,  how  far  does 
it  meet  our  definition  of  a  necessary  religion? 

Judaism  is  rational,  for  its  fundamental 
doctrines  are  in  accord  with  human  intel- 
ligence. These  are  the  unity  of  God  and  the 
unity  of  mankind,  which  forms  a  common 
brotherhood,  even  as  the  Deity  is  the  Father 
of  all  races  and  creeds.  Its  ideal  is  universal 
peace  and  righteousness,  to  be  brought  about 
by  the  gradual  diffusion  of  justice,  kindness, 
and  humility.  Its  aim  is  the  attainment  of 


ii8  What  Is  Judaism? 

the  perfect  life  among  its  adherents,  which 
its  rites  and  ceremonies  have  in  view  and  to 
which  they  are  subordinated.  Its  ethics  are 
unsurpassed  for  breadth  and  beauty — they 
have  become  so  absorbed  and  utilised  that 
the  world  fails  to  recognise  the  debt.  It 
plants  itself  on  earth  and  speculates  little 
about  the  next  world,  preferring  to  make  a 
heaven  of  earth  instead  of  transplanting  the 
passions  and  weaknesses  of  earth  to  heaven. 
Its  highest  conception  of  the  future  is  of  all 
creeds  and  nations  acknowledging  one  God 
and  worshipping  as  brethren.  It  seeks  no 
proselytes :  all  who  lead  pious  lives,  whatever 
their  creed  or  race,  inherit  eternal  bliss,  is  its 
traditional  saying.  And  it  has  held  to  this 
gracious  optimism  despite  two  thousand 
years  of  travail.  "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself,"  "Have  we  not  all 
one  Father?  "  are  its  golden  texts  for  all  time. 
Undoubtedly  one  clew,  however  slight, 
to  the  opinion  that  Judaism  is  unnecessary, 
is  found  in  its  disinclination  to  proselytise. 
One  is  accustomed  to  associate  some  system  of 
propaganda,  an  active,  aggressive  tendency, 
with  a  living  faith.  Apparently  the  objection 
that  Max  Muller  decades  ago  uttered  against 


Is  Judaism  Necessary  To-Day?  119 

Judaism  as  being  inert  without  the  missionary 
spirit  carries  a  certain  amount  of  weight. 
Hence,  as  it  makes  no  outside  stir,  is  con- 
cerned directly  with  its  own  adherents,  and 
gives  no  thought  to  the  world's  salvation  as 
demanding  its  interference,  it  is  likely  to  be 
regarded  as  less  necessary  than  a  more 
militant  organisation.  But  there  is  a  two- 
fold reason  for  this  apathy.  In  the  first 
place,  the  Jews  have  never  had  the  power  to 
make  propaganda  even  if  they  desired  and 
the  synagogue  polity  favoured  such  a  course. 
It  would  have  been  suicidal,  if  one  considers 
the  conditions  under  which  they  have  ex- 
isted. Then,  too,  the  Jew,  realising  the 
beauty  and  excellence  in  the  life  and  aspira- 
tion of  the  non-Jew,  feels  that  the  offshoots 
of  Judaism,  what  the  Germans  call  its 
"daughter  religions,"  are  doing  God's  work. 
As  a  matter  of  history,  however,  it  is  false  to 
assume  that  Judaism  has  always  been  a 
passionless  block — it  has  numbered  illustrious 
converts;  but  these  have  come  without 
conscious  effort,  even  in  Roman  days  when 
Juvenal  grew  sarcastic  at  the  Jew's  expense 
and  the  synagogue  was  visited  by  men  and 
women  of  noble  rank.  Why,  however,  should 


120  What  Is  Judaism? 

it  compass  sea  and  earth  to  make  a  proselyte? 
What  was  to  be  gained?  Mere  numerical 
strength  was  of  little  consequence  to  a  people 
whose  consoling  hope  was  the  saving  rem- 
nant. And  as  for  power,  dominion,  wealth, 
had  not  the  prophet  proclaimed  of  old,  "Not 
by  might,  but  by  my  spirit"? 

It  is,  however,  the  survival  of  Judaism, 
with  its  essential  belief  still  powerful,  its  hold 
on  its  adherents  practically  unchanged,  its 
ethical  platform  broad  and  inspiring,  in 
other  words,  its  vitality  undimmed,  that 
proves  its  right  to  be  called  a  religion  neces- 
sary to-day.  When  Tennyson  wrote, 

"From  scarped  cliff  and  quarried  stone 
She  cries,  'A  thousand  types  are  gone: 
I  care  for  nothing,  all  shall  go,' " 

he  did  not  think  of  any  possible  exception  to 
the  law  of  destruction  that  overwhelms 
nations  and  creeds  as  well  as  cliff  and  stone. 
May  not  Judaism,  without  any  undue  boast- 
fulness,  claim  to  be  such  an  exception?  A 
religion  that  has  survived  so  much  cannot  be 
unnecessary.  A  vitality  that  has  stood, 
persecution-proof,  for  ages  must  have  a 
further  part  to  play.  If  the  thought  of 


Is  Judaism  Necessary  To-Day?  121 

Emerson  be  true,  "Every  lash  inflicted  is  a 
tongue  of  flame,  every  prison  a  more  illus- 
trious abode,  every  burnt  book  or  house 
enlightens  the  world,"  the  practical  cruci- 
fixion of  an  entire  race  for  nearly  twenty 
centuries  because  it  refused  to  be  disloyal 
to  its  flag  is  the  most  powerful  proof  that 
it  must  possess  a  message  and  a  warning 
necessary  in  some  form  for  mankind  to-day. 
Judaism  has  had  the  hardest  kind  of  a 
fight  from  the  beginning.  It  has  had  to 
uplift  itself  from  idolatry  and  materialism. 
Its  entire  history  has  been  a  discipline  of 
suffering — a  process  of  chastening.  But  it 
has  caught  some  share  of  the  truth  and  it  is 
needed  to  emphasise  that  portion.  If  it  has 
not  realised  its  ideals,  is  not  this  the  fate  of 
humanity  in  general?  Yet  the  mind  and 
heart  of  the  race  have  been  so  trained  in  the 
school  of  trial,  its  intellect  so  exercised,  when 
any  other  people  would  have  fallen  in  the 
mire  and  been  lost  by  the  way,  that  there  is 
not  a  field  to  which  it  has  been  grudgingly 
admitted  which  its  representatives  have  not 
adorned.  Art,  music,  science,  law,  medicine, 
finance,  philology,  the  useful  trades,  philan- 
thropy, has  not  the  Jew's  record  in  these 


122  What  Is  Judaism? 

departments  of  effort  been  notable  in  but  a 
single  century  of  emancipation?  Surely  a 
religion  that  can  produce  such  illustrious 
workers  from  Josef  Israels  to  Moses  Monte- 
fiore  cannot  but  be  necessary  to-day.  And 
as  to  the  future,  it  will  be  more  necessary  as 
the  world's  attitude  changes  and  the  Jew 
himself  wisely  and  reverently  can  give  more 
thought  to  the  changeless  spirit  and  ideals  of 
Judaism  than  to  transient  forms,  symbols, 
and  customs,  which,  while  they  may  protect 
and  preserve  vital  principles  too  often 
obscure,  distort  and  stifle  the  truth. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  TALMUD  IN   HISTORY 

THESE  are  days  when  from  buried 
mound  and  hidden  rock  the  distant 
past  is  steadily  revealing  its  secrets,  and  the 
history  of  once  powerful,  but  now  extinct, 
nations  is  successfully  deciphered.  The 
cultured  lands  of  our  time  are  interested  in 
the  quest  and  send  their  scholars  to  speed 
research.  Thus  Egypt,  Babylonia,  Assyria, 
Persia  are  reconstructed  from  the  library  and 
the  museum  of  antiquities. 

While  the  literature  of  nations  that  have 
passed  away  is  again  read  and  studied  with 
an  ease  that  grows  with  every  fresh  dis- 
covery, one  old  book  remains  as  mysterious 
and  indecipherable  as  the  Sphinx,  although 
subjected  for  over  a  thousand  years  to  the 
merciless  assaults  of  foes  and  rapt  adoration 
of  worshippers.  One  by  one  the  sacred  books 
of  the  East  are  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
123 


124  What  Is  Judaism? 

cultured  of  every  creed  and  interpreted  by 
modern  scholarship.  This  book, — this  series 
of  volumes  rather,  the  date  of  whose  author- 
ship and  composition  extends  over  seven 
hundred  years — the  Talmud,  preserves  its 
remoteness  and  maintains  its  air  of  solitude. 
It  defies  the  critic,  it  baffles  the  investigator,  it 
allures,  yet  eludes,  the  student.  Its  age, 
its  language,  its  contents,  its  atmosphere, 
its  character,  render  useless  the  ordinary 
tools  of  literary  analysis  and  interpretation; 
and  its  mountains  of  dialectic  and  discussion 
are  practically  insurmountable.  Here  and 
there,  it  is  true,  the  process  of  decipherment 
has  begun.  A  few  trusty  explorers  have  been 
at  work,  and  many  a  gem  has  been  brought 
to  light,  with  outlines  of  dim,  subterranean 
palaces  of  thought.  But  although  the  study 
of  the  Talmud  as  a  modern  discipline,  and 
its  elucidation  in  the  light  of  the  latest 
historical  and  philological  researches,  have 
made  some  progress,  the  Talmud  remains 
the  Talmud.  We  may  abridge,  translate, 
paraphrase,  as  has  already  been  done  in 
French,  German,  and  English;  we  may 
publish  introductions  and  gather  a  thousand 
extracts — the  Talmud  is  a  sealed  work  save 


The  Talmud  in  History      125 

to  the  initiated,  the  genuine  Talmudist,  who 
has  devoted  long  stretches  of  his  youth  and 
manhood  to  its  earnest  and  all-engrossing 
study.  The  dilettante  may  scale  its  outer 
wall,  but  can  never  gain  the  inner  citadel. 

The  story  of  the  Talmud,  the  rise  and 
development  of  Jewish  tradition,  the  codifica- 
tion of  the  laws  and  sayings  of  the  rabbis — 
with  their  twin-streams  of  halakah  or  abstract 
principle  and  haggadah  or  parable — this  has 
been  told  at  greater  or  less  length  in  recent 
decades;  and  how  it  became  the  intellectual 
Temple  of  the  Jew  when  the  Temple  at 
Jerusalem  was  destroyed  by  the  Romans, 
need  not  be  repeated  here.  But  the  Talmud 
in  history,  not  the  history  of  the  Talmud,  is 
a  less  familiar  topic,  and  one  which  has  a 
fascination  of  its  own.  What  has  been  its 
fate  in  the  centuries?  Has  it  shared  the 
varying  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  people?  Has 
it  been  raised  to  a  pedestal  or  fastened  to  a 
stake?  Has  it,  too,  aroused  calumny,  suffer- 
ing, torture?  Many  are  the  instances  in 
history  when  rude  hands  have  been  laid  on 
a  book  to  destroy  it.  It  might  have  been  a 
version  of  Scripture,  a  scientific  treatise,  a 
whole  library  which  must  be  burnt  to  satisfy 


126  What  Is  Judaism? 

the  adversary's  wrath  or  piety.  Such  ex- 
amples of  "slaying  an  immortality  rather 
than  a  life,"  belong  to  all  ages  and  creeds. 
The  peculiarity  of  the  Talmud's  fate,  how- 
ever, is  the  continuous  persecution  which  it 
has  encountered — as  if  principalities  and 
powers  wished  to  expiate  their  own  trans- 
gressions on  this  literary  scapegoat,  this 
enigmatical  work,  "without  form  or  comeli- 
ness," and  despised  as  cunning  sorcery  that 
led  men  to  perdition.  Thou  art  not  a  book, 
one  of  its  mediaeval  critics  all  but  exclaims; 
thou  art  a  rabbi.  Beware  of  the  spell! 

While  earlier  centuries  show  a  scattering 
fire  of  fulminations  against  the  Talmud  and 
its  study  from  the  era  of  Justinian,  the  Middle 
Ages  are  richest  in  such  incidents  that  illus- 
trate the  temper  of  the  times.  France 
furnishes  the  first  chapter  in  the  mediaeval 
record  of  the  Talmud's  fate.  In  the  thir- 
teenth century,  the  French  rabbis,  with  more 
courage  than  prudence,  excommunicated 
Nicholas  Donin.  Rabbis  are  human  after 
all,  and  learn  sometimes  too  well  from  their 
neighbours.  They  are  more  impressionable 
than  is  generally  believed,  and  can  be  taught 
readily  by  their  surroundings.  The  quality 


The  Talmud  in  History      127 

of  imitativeness  has  usually  been  a  costly  one 
to  the  Jew.  In  the  case  of  Donin,  they  simply 
adopted  the  mediaeval  method  of  silencing 
heresy;  the  result  was  distinctly  disagreeable. 
To  avenge  their  judgment  on  his  opinions, 
he  became  a  convert ;  and,  quick  to  convince 
his  new  brethren  of  his  zeal,  he  assailed  the 
Talmud  before  Pope  Gregory  IX  and  St. 
Louis  of  France.  He  accused  it  of  blasphemy 
and  abuse  of  the  Christian  religion,  in  a  long 
list  of  charges  to  which  the  Pope  gave  willing 
ear.  A  transcript  was  promptly  sent  by 
Gregory  to  the  heads  of  the  Church  in  various 
lands,  and  a  letter  was  written  to  the  mon- 
archs  of  these  countries,  to  demand  their 
support.  Apparently,  there  was  more  rattle 
than  fang  in  papal  decrees  in  that  era,  for 
only  in  France  was  the  Talmud  really  con- 
fiscated. In  1240  the  Jews  were  compelled 
by  law  to  surrender  their  copies,  and  the  work 
was  put  on  trial.  A  public  disputation  was 
held,  and  four  prominent  rabbis  of  North 
France  were  summoned  to  appear  each  in 
turn,  and  refute,  if  possible,  Donin's  charges. 
The  scene  took  place  at  the  royal  court  on 
June  25,  1240,  in  the  presence  of  the  Queen- 
mother  Blanche,  the  Bishops  of  Paris  and 


128  What  Is  Judaism? 

Senlis,  and  of  many  Dominicans.  After  a 
three  days'  discussion  in  Latin,  the  Talmud 
was  ordered  to  be  burnt.  For  a  time  the 
sentence  was  not  executed,  owing  to  the 
intercession  of  the  Archbishop  of  Sens.  On 
his  sudden  death,  however,  copies  of  the 
Talmud  and  similar  writings  were  seized  by 
order  of  Louis,  and  twenty-four  carloads  of 
them  were  burnt  in  Paris  in  June,  1242. 
Gregory's  successor,  Innocent  IV,  in  1243, 
promptly  rescinded  the  edict  of  destruction. 
This  burning  of  the  Talmud  was  not  forgotten 
by  the  Jews.  The  anniversary  was  kept  as  a 
fast,  and  elegies  were  written  on  the  event. 

The  disputation  at  Paris  was  not  without 
influence  on  other  lands.  On  July  20,  1263, 
Barcelona  witnessed  a  similar  trial  which 
lasted  four  days.  Here  there  were  only  two 
disputants — Nachmanides,  the  most  famous 
rabbi  in  Spain,  and  Pablo  Christiani,  a  con- 
verted Jew  of  the  Dominican  order.  Both 
were  men  of  controversial  ability,  and  the 
tournament  possessed  more  intellectual  merit 
than  its  predecessor.  After  protracted  par- 
leying on  both  sides,  Nachmanides  won  warm 
praise  from  the  King  of  Aragon  for  his  skil- 
ful defence.  The  Dominicans  sought  to 


The  Talmud  in  History      129 

renew  the  discussion  a  week  later  in  the 
synagogue,  but  here  they  had  such  little 
success  that,  when  Nachmanides  left  Bar- 
celona, the  King  gave  him  300  maravedis  as 
a  token  of  respect. 

The  Talmud  was  not  to  enjoy  any  long 
respite  from  attack.  A  year  later,  in  1264, 
at  the  request  of  Pablo  Christiani,  Pope 
Clement  IX  issued  a  bull  to  the  Bishop  of 
Taragona,  commanding  him  to  confiscate 
copies  of  the  Talmud,  and  submit  them  to  the 
Dominicans  and  Franciscans  for  examina- 
tion, and,  if  found  blasphemous,  to  be  burnt. 
The  King  of  Aragon  having  received  this  bull 
from  Pablo,  ordered  the  Talmud  to  be  ex- 
amined, and  all  apparently  abusive  and 
blasphemous  passages  to  be  struck  out.  The 
Dominicans,  with  Pablo,  became  thus  official 
censors  of  the  Talmud — which  was  a  less 
radical  method  to  employ  than  wholesale 
condemnation  to  the  flames. 

The  third  public  trial  of  the  Talmud  was 
remarkable  for  its  duration.  It  took  place 
in  Tortosa,  Aragon,  from  Feb.,  1413,  until 
Nov.  12,  1414.  Sixty-eight  sessions  were 
held,  certainly  sufficient  in  number  to  ex- 
haust the  subject  and  the  spectators.  A 


130  What  Is  Judaism? 

Jewish  convert  again  appeared  as  accuser, 
Geronimo  de  Santa  Fe.  In  defence  of  the 
Talmud,  over  twenty  of  the  most  prominent 
Aragonese  Jews  were  summoned  to  appear, 
including  poets,  physicians,  philosophers, 
translators;  but  none  had  the  courage  and 
capacity  of  Nachmanides.  Perhaps  they  felt 
the  uselessness  of  further  vindication,  and 
realised  how  insecure  their  right  of  domicile 
in  the  shadow  of  the  Inquisition.  Pope 
Benedict  XIII,  who  had  been  deposed  from 
the  papacy,  but  retained  the  mask  of  author- 
ity in  Spain,  presided  at  the  disputation,  and 
sought  to  regain  his  power  and  prestige  by 
the  conversion  of  the  Jews,  which  was  to 
follow  their  abandonment  of  the  Talmud. 
For  a  time  the  discussion  was  calm  and 
friendly;  but  when  Benedict  found  that  his 
hopes  were  vain,  and  the  Jews  continued  in 
their  obstinacy,  threat  followed  cajolery,  and 
he  threw  aside  all  dissimulation.  He  con- 
demned the  Talmud  to  the  flames,  and 
prohibited  its  further  study;  but  his  decree 
had  no  effect.  His  bull  of  eleven  clauses, 
issued  May  n,  1415,  never  came  into  active 
operation;  for  while  he  was  engaged  in  his 
vindictive  measures  the  Council  of  Constance 


The  Talmud  in  History      131 

deposed  him.  Not  only  was  he  abandoned 
by  his  Spanish  protectors,  and  his  mere 
shadow  of  authority  ridiculed,  but  he  was 
denounced  as  "unfrocked  and  spurious"  by 
his  favourite,  the  flagellant  priest,  Vincent 
Ferrer,  who  had  so  powerfully  aided  him  in 
his  plans  against  the  Talmud. 

For  a  century  the  Talmud  was  allowed  a 
brief  spell  of  repose,  and  then  it  became  once 
more  the  cause  of  an  agitation  which  was  to 
be  wider  reaching  than  its  foes  and  friends 
ever  imagined  to  be  possible.  When,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Pfeffer- 
korn,  a  Jewish  convert,  who  had  been  im- 
prisoned for  theft,  sought  to  destroy  the 
Talmud,  he  would  have  hesitated  and  aban- 
doned his  plan  if  he  had  for  a  moment 
thought  that  his  hue  and  cry  was  to  influence 
the  Protestant  Reformation,  and  pave  the 
way  for  a  Hebrew  renaissance.  Pfefferkorn, 
with  a  coterie  of  Dominicans  of  Cologne, 
prevailed  upon  the  sister  of  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian, who  after  her  husband's  death 
entered  a  convent  at  Munich  and  became 
abbess,  to  further  their  designs. 

On  Aug.  19,  1509,  Maximilian  gave 
Pfefferkorn  full  power  over  the  Talmud  and 


132  What  Is  Judaism? 

kindred  books.  Frankfort  was  the  first 
scene  of  conflict,  when  the  censor  demanded 
the  surrender  of  the  Talmud  and  other 
works  at  the  Emperor's  request.  But  the 
Jews  of  that  city  were  not  to  submit  so 
readily  as  their  brethren  in  Spain  and  France. 
They  appealed  to  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence, 
and  checked  temporarily  the  Dominicans. 
How  Reuchlin,  the  head  of  the  Humanists, 
was  drawn  into  the  strife,  to  decide  as  to  the 
character  of  the  Talmud;  how,  despite  the 
Emperor's  vacillation,  the  Talmud  was  vin- 
dicated; how  Hoogstraten  and  the  Domini- 
cans were  lampooned  by  Hutten  and  the 
author  of  Epistolae  Obscurorum  Virorum; 
how,  one  by  one,  the  cause  of  the  Talmud 
gained  new  adherents,  including  Erasmus 
and  Franz  von  Sickingen;  how  the  uni- 
versities were  appealed  to  for  their  opinion, 
and  the  University  of  Paris  condemned  the 
Talmud;  how,  finally,  the  subject  was 
brought  before  the  Lateran  Council,  and  the 
Dominicans  were  compelled  to  pay  the  costs 
of  their  suit  against  Reuchlin,  while  Pope 
Leo  X  permitted  the  Talmud  to  be  printed 
by  Daniel  Bomberg  at  Venice; — all  this 
belongs  to  the  history  of  Humanism,  and 


The  Talmud  in  History      133 

forms  a  fascinating  chapter  in  the  story  of 
intellectual  progress.  It  was  not  accidental 
that  in  the  very  year  of  the  editio  princeps 
of  the  Talmud,  1520,  Luther  at  Wittenberg 
burnt  the  Pope's  bull. 

The  Talmud's  triumph  was  to  receive  a 
temporary  check.  While  the  printing  presses 
were  beginning  to  supply  large  orders  for  the 
work,  and  interest  in  Hebrew  and  rabbinical 
literature  had  received  marked  development, 
Pope  Julius  III  signed  the  decree  laid  before 
him  by  the  Inquisitor-General,  Aug.  12,  1553, 
condemning  to  confiscation  and  the  flames 
throughout  Italy  copies  of  the  Talmud  and 
Hebrew  books.  Pope  Paul  IV  continued  in 
this  hostile  spirit,  and  gave  the  Talmud  no 
mercy.  Under  his  successor,  Pius  IV,  the 
harsh  laws  of  his  immediate  predecessors  were 
somewhat  modified.  He  issued  a  bull  (March 
24,  1564),  as  the  decision  of  the  Council  of 
Trent,  that  while  the  Talmud  was  a  pro- 
hibited work,  it  could  be  printed  if  its  name 
were  omitted,  and  if  it  were  submitted  before 
publication  to  the  censor,  for  the  omisvcion 
of  any  inimical  references  to  the  Church  and 
the  Christian  religion.  The  mutilation  of 
the  Talmud,  the  various  expurgations  and 


134  What  Is  Judaism? 

new  readings  instituted  by  papal  commis- 
sions— this  forms  an  interesting  chapter  in 
itself.  Gross  ignorance  and  prejudice  revel 
here  at  their  worst,  and  originate  laughable 
emendations.  That  the  word  "heathen"  can 
now  refer  to  a  non-Christian,  that  the  Rome 
of  the  Talmud  was  not  the  Rome  of  the 
papacy,  apparently  did  not  dawn  upon  the 
learned  inquisitors;  and  the  verbal  changes 
in  consequence  that  are  preserved  in  extant 
editions  would  surprise  indeed  the  olden 
rabbis. 

There  followed  now  a  brighter  era  for  the 
Talmud.  The  revival  in  Hebrew  and  rab- 
binical learning  made  triumphant  progress. 
In  Holland,  England,  and  Switzerland,  Tal- 
mudic  studies  attracted  a  host  of  scholars. 
The  Buxtorfs,  L'Empereur,  Sheringam,  Sel- 
den,  Surenhuys,  were  among  the  men  who 
strove  to  popularise  rabbinical  lore ;  and  they 
were  to  be  succeeded  by  other  illustrious 
names  in  the  learned  world  down  to  our  own 
day — translators  and  interpreters  in  varied 
fashion.  It  is  true  there  were  attempts  now 
and  then  to  subject  the  Talmud  to  reproach 
and  condemnation,  and  as  recently  as  1757 
a  large  number  of  copies  of  the  work  were 


The  Talmud  in  History      135 

burnt  in  Poland  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of 
fanaticism.  The  anti-Semitic  wave  which 
has  about  spent  its  force  in  Germany  was 
marked,  too,  by  the  revival  of  old-time 
accusations.  But  the  spirit  of  our  age  is  not 
the  spirit  of  medisevalism.  When  Franz 
Delitzsch  can  write  in  vindication  of  the 
Talmud;  when  August  Wunsche  can  devote 
years  to  the  translation  of  its  haggadah,  and 
the  fairy-land  of  rabbinical  midrash;  when 
W.  H.  Lowe,  one  of  a  number  of  Christian 
scholars  in  England,  can  exclaim,  in  editing 
a  fragment  of  the  Talmud:  "The  Talmud 
is  a  closed  book  to  those  who  are  content  to 
skim  the  scum  which  rises  to  the  surface  of 
its  troubled  water.  Closed,  doubly  closed, 
is  it  to  those  who  come  with  a  blind  hatred 
of  Judaism,  and  whose  chief  delight  it  is  to 
cry,  'Impious  Jew!  foolish  rabbi!'  " — when 
its  importance  for  philology,  archaeology,  and 
the  elucidation  of  problems  of  the  early 
centuries,  has  become  recognised — and  Pope 
Clement's  proposal,  in  1307,  to  found  Tal- 
mudical  chairs  at  the  universities  has  been 
adopted  in  more  than  one  instance  in  Europe 
and  America — might  not  one  assume  that 
history  has  now  a  kindlier  and  juster  fate 


136  What  Is  Judaism? 

for  the  maligned,  misinterpreted,  misunder- 
stood Talmud? 

But  surely  it  is  no  spotless  work,  the 
intelligent  reader  may  assert.  Has  it  not 
blemishes,  does  it  not  contain  errors,  frivol- 
ities, statements  that  are  at  variance  with 
its  claims  to  wisdom?  Yes,  there  are 
blemishes  in  the  Talmud — that  repository  of 
rabbinical  opinion,  grave  and  gay,  stretching 
over  seven  centuries.  How  could  it  be  other- 
wise under  the  circumstances,  seeing  that 
the  work  records  the  mood  and  temper  of  a 
thousand  minds,  their  after-dinner  talk  as 
well  as  judicial  decisions,  philosophy,  folk- 
lore, and  theosophy.  Every  varying  breath, 
every  tone,  discordant  or  harmonious,  is 
distinctly  phonographed.  It  preserves  too 
faithfully  each  utterance,  but  it  gives  no 
hint  as  to  background  and  motive :  this  must 
be  read  between  the  lines.  Its  hyperboles 
and  orientalisms  seem  ugly  distortions  or 
shameless  perversions  to  our  cooler  temper- 
aments— some  topics  and  allusions  incon- 
gruous, if  not  offensive.  This  is  frankly 
admitted  by  so  staunch  a  Jewish  historian  as 
Graetz.  But  a  thought  from  Browning — who 
liked  to  cull  texts  from  rabbinical  fancy — will 


The  Talmud  in  History      137 

perhaps  best  express  a  fair  estimate  of  the 
Talmud,  although  the  English  poet  never 
had  that  work  in  view  when  he  penned  the 
lines : 

"It  were  to  be  wished  the  flaws  were  fewer 
In  the  earthen  vessel,  holding  treasure, 
Which  lies  as  safe  in  a  golden  ewer; 
But  the  main  thing  is,  does  it  hold  good  measure  ? 
Heaven  soon  sets  right  all  other  matters." 


CHAPTER  XI 

WHAT  IS  THE  CABALA? 

HPHE  fact  that  many  technical  terms  in 
1  Freemasonry,  largely  used  in  the 
higher  degrees  of  the  Scottish  Rite,  phrases 
like  Sephiroth,  the  Seal  of  Solomon,  Shem 
Hamphoresh,  etc.,  have  a  Cabalistic  signifi- 
cance, makes  always  timely  the  inquiry, 
What  is  the  Cabala? 

The  word  is  often  repeated  without  any 
definite  knowledge  of  its  real  meaning  and 
history.  A  mediaeval  monk,  to  air  his  learn- 
ing, once  cited  the  Talmud  as  a  person  of 
flesh  and  blood — "as  Rabbi  Talmud  says," 
so  he  went  on  to  quote.  As  much  violence  to 
the  Cabala  is  done,  one  fears,  when  it  is 
regarded  as  a  mysterious  book  with  seven 
seals  or  as  a  specifically  Jewish  system  of 
thought. 

Now  here  an  objection  is  to  be  met.  Surely 
it  must  be  admitted  that  the  Cabala  was 
138 


What  Is  the  Cabala?         139 

associated  with  the  rabbis  for  many  ages. 
Yes,  without  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  Yet 
that  for  a  thousand  years  such  a  mystical 
theosophy  should  have  existed  side  by  side 
with  so  sober  and  practical  a  creed  as  Juda- 
ism is  no  rare  phenomenon  in  the  history  of 
religion.  How  often  do  we  meet  Christianity 
and  its  aberrations  running  as  parallel  and 
occasionally  intersecting  lines!  While,  then, 
one  must  grant  that  the  Cabala  is  associated 
with  ages  of  receptive  Jewish  thought,  which 
was  never  restricted  to  one  philosophy  or 
school  of  speculation,  but  ranged  at  will 
among  the  currents  of  every  epoch,  Hellenic, 
Roman,  Persian,  Mohammedan,  Christian, 
modern,  the  mystic  lore  must  never  be 
identified  with  Judaism,  any  more  than 
Christian  Science  is  to  be  identified  with 
Yankee  notions,  or  Occultism — that  old 
inheritance  from  India — is  to  be  regarded  as 
part  of  our  present-day  civilisation. 

Those  familiar  with  the  record  of  excava- 
tion in  the  East  understand  how  ruins  are 
stratified.  Fire,  pillage,  an  earthquake, 
utilising  a  city's  former  site  as  a  convenient 
rubbish  pile,  will  gradually  produce  a  succes- 
sion of  layers  of  debris  rising  one  upon  the 


140  What  Is  Judaism? 

other  and  effectually  concealing  the  original 
walls  and  house-lines  of  the  town,  until  the 
pick-axe  and  spade  reveal  distinct  settle- 
ments on  the  one  mound  or  hill,  with  evi- 
dences of  different  ages  and  civilisations  in 
dress  and  ornament,  dwelling  and  tomb, 
weapon  and  utensil.  Similarly  the  student 
of  the  Cabala  recognises  therein  a  composite, 
a  series  of  stratification,  so  to  speak.  Each 
layer  is  plainly  discernible.  Back  of  all 
hyperbole  and  mysticism,  Babylonia,  Persia, 
Egypt,  Greece  can  be  distinguished,  blending 
with  Jewish  and  Christian  ideas. 

To  the  general  reader  the  Cabala  presents 
many  points  of  absorbing  interest.  Its  name 
signifies  "received"  tradition,  and  its  ad- 
herents claim  for  it  the  authority  of  a  reve- 
lation made  in  the  remote  past  to  a  chosen 
few,  and  preserved  in  an  unbroken  chain  by 
the  select  through  the  ages.  For  centuries 
it  was  apparently  a  silent  influence,  even  if 
in  the  writings  of  much  later  eras  a  glorious 
antiquity  was  claimed  with  Adam,  Abraham, 
Moses,  and  Solomon  as  its  heroes.  How  it 
crystallised  around  certain  terms  in  the  Old 
Testament;  how  affected  by  the  Alexandrian 
philosophy  and  the  Gnostics;  its  connection 


What  Is  the  Cabala?          141 

with  the  sect  of  the  Essenes  of  such  signifi- 
cance in  early  Apostolic  times;  its  frequent 
appearance  in  apocryphal  writings  of  the 
second  and  first  pre-Christian  centuries;  the 
late  date  and  authorship  of  its  two  canonical 
works;  its  renaissance  in  the  Middle  Ages 
when  Pico  Mirandola  became  its  champion 
to  Christian  Europe  and  Reuchlin  zealously 
interpreted  its  secrets  to  the  learned  world — 
these  and  similar  topics  furnish  an  almost 
endless  discussion  of  views.  Whatever  the 
varieties  of  opinion,  we  know  now  authorita- 
tively that  Egyptian,  Chaldean,  Greek, 
Jewish,  and  Christian  culture  contributed  to 
its  growth,  and  its  history  in  certain  develop- 
ments is  but  a  chapter  in  the  story  of  those 
persistent  survivals  of  intellectual  aberration 
that  meet  the  inquirer  everywhere,  and 
which,  to  apply  Goethe's  words,  are  trans- 
mitted from  age  to  age  like  an  everlasting 
ailment. 

Now  if  the  Cabala  had  held  to  its  original 
meaning  or  office  and  remained  a  theoretical 
system  of  speculation,  however  daring,  but 
of  profound  ethical  worth,  as  its  sages  spun 
their  problems  of  the  primal  will,  providence, 
immortality,  and  sin,  it  would  be  less  open  to 


142  What  Is  Judaism? 

criticism.  It  would  have  formed  for  all  time 
a  healthy  antidote  to  rationalism.  Its 
fundamental  errors,  however,  were  twofold: 
First,  it  canonised  mysticism — a  distinct 
point  of  departure  from  Judaism,  which 
insists  upon  knowledge  as  the  basis  of  faith, 
whose  Bible  is  an  open  book,  and  whose 
Talmud  records  not  absolutism  but  a  conflict 
of  opinion.  But  the  Cabala  emphasises  as 
its  raison  d'etre  a  mysterious  esoteric  revela- 
tion given  to  a  few  and  restricted  to  a  few. 
Could  there  be  a  greater  contrast  to  the 
universalism  of  Scripture,  its  simplicity  and 
directness?  The  opposition  was  to  go  much 
further.  The  saint  of  the  early  centuries  was 
to  claim  by  virtue  of  the  mystic  science  the 
place  of  Biblical  Prophet,  just  as  in  later  ages 
his  successor  would  create  a  new  Bible  in  the 
Zohar. 

The  second  vital  error  was  when  the 
mystics  left  the  realm  of  pure  abstraction 
and  became  working  or  practical  Cabalists. 
The  Jewish  code  absolutely  forbade  its 
adherents  to  consult  the  soothsayer;  the 
Cabala  too  often  converted  the  sage  into  the 
necromancer  and  raised  demonology  to  a 
science.  The  cleavage  grew  complete,  for 


What  Is  the  Cabala?          143 

while  Judaism  taught  the  magic  of  the  law, 
the  working  Cabala  emphasised  the  law  of 
magic,  with  all  its  noxious  influences.  The 
Hebrew  letters  were  henceforth  not  merely 
signs  for  things  but  "implements  of  divine 
powers  by  means  of  which  nature  may  be 
subjugated."  Nothing,  then,  could  be  more 
un- Jewish  than  this  phase  of  the  Cabala. 

We  may  readily  decipher  its  varied  ele- 
ments. It  is  in  reality  a  composite,  partly 
ethical  and  partly  metaphysical.  Primitive 
Jewish  fancies,  stirred  into  activity  by  the 
period  of  exile  and  contact  with  foreign 
influences,  were  to  develop  into  apocalyptic 
rhapsodies.  Under  the  impetus  of  the 
Gnostics,  dualism  was  to  assert  itself,  which 
goes  back  to  Chaldea.  The  Cabalistic  tree, 
with  its  right  side  the  source  of  light  and 
purity  and  the  left  the  source  of  darkness  and 
impurity,  could  not  be  more  Zoroastrian.  Its 
visions  and  miracles,  its  doctrine  of  emana- 
tions, are  distinctly  Alexandrian,  dating 
from  an  era  when  Alexandria  and  the  Neo- 
Platonists  wielded  so  powerful  an  influence. 
Its  doctrine  of  numbers  and  letters  recalls 
Pythagoras.  Its  angelology  and  demonol- 
ogy  are  Babylonian;  its  Adam  Kadmon  is 


144  What  Is  Judaism? 

unquestionably  Christian,  with  the  idea  of 
Mediator,  Metatron,  Prince  of  the  world. 
Could  any  blend  be  more  complete?  Here 
are  Moses,  Zoroaster,  Plato,  Philo,  Pytha- 
goras, Paul,  with  now  and  then  a  later  rabbi 
or  schoolman  in  the  mystic's  r61e,  while 
Pantheism,  Dualism,  Neo-Platonism,  Ideal- 
ism, the  Unitarian,  the  Trinitarian,  the 
Transcendentalist  contend  for  the  mastery; 
and  in  some  developments  the  crassest 
materialism,  like  Mephisto  in  the  shadow  of 
the  sanctuary,  is  present  at  the  feast.  While 
the  Cabala  may  not  have  originated  the  evils 
associated  with  its  name,  it  gave  them  too 
ready  a  reception  and  approval,  to  judge 
from  the  writings  of  many  of  its  followers. 

One  essential  point  -  remains  to  be  con- 
sidered— what  does  the  Cabala  teach?  It  is 
impossible  in  a  few  paragraphs  to  do  justice 
to  a  system  so  venerable  and  comprehensive, 
which  from  its  Oriental  quality  and  symbol- 
ism is  so  easily  misjudged  by  our  calmer  and 
more  critical  Western  minds. 

It  may  be  stated  briefly  to  be  an  attempt 
to  harmonise  universal  reason  with  the  Script- 
ures. Its  conception  of  the  Almighty,  how- 
ever, is  so  transcendental  that  it  is  obliged 


What  Is  the  Cabala?          145 

to  invoke  mediating  influences  between  the 
Infinite  and  the  World.  Its  canonical  books 
are  two,  which  serve  as  a  basis  for  an  ex- 
ceedingly rich  literature,  stretching  over  a 
thousand  years  and  more.  The  first,  "Sefer 
Yetzirah"  or  "Book  of  Creation,"  is  of  un- 
known authorship  and  dates  from  about  the 
eighth  century  of  our  era.  It  is  a  philosophi- 
cal treatise  on  the  cosmogony,  and  finds  in 
the  ten  numbers  and  the  twenty-two  letters 
of  the  Hebrew  alphabet  the  elements  of  all 
things  and  the  modifications  of  human  life. 
The  ten  Sephiroth,  which  can  be  rendered 
numbers,  powers,  intelligences,  are  the 
foundation  of  the  entire  universe,  mediating 
between  the  Infinite  and  the  World.  These 
comprehend  three  primal  emanations  from 
the  spirit  of  the  Infinite.  The  first  is  spirit 
or  air,  out  of  which  came  water,  to  become 
in  turn  fire.  Add  to  the  three  six  dimensions, 
three  to  right  and  three  to  left,  and  the  tenth 
element,  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  we  have  the 
ten  eternal  powers  that  create  the  substance 
of  the  universe.  The  Hebrew  letters  con- 
stitute the  form,  being  on  the  boundary  line 
between  the  spiritual  and  physical  world, 
as  only  through  language  can  be  recognised 


146  What  Is  Judaism? 

the  existence  of  things.  The  letters  are 
divided  into  three  classes.  The  first  forms 
three  fundamental  letters,  the  three  primal 
elements  water,  air,  and  fire;  the  second 
class  consists  of  the  seven  double  letters 
which  represent  contrasts,  and  correspond 
with  the  seven  planets,  seven  heavens,  and 
seven  earths,  seven  days  and  seven  nights; 
the  third  class  consists  of  the  twelve  simple 
letters,  according  to  the  twelve  signs  of  the 
Zodiac,  the  twelve  months  of  the  year,  the 
most  prominent  parts  of  the  human  body, 
and  the  most  characteristic  qualities  of  our 
nature.  This  description  gives  but  an  im- 
perfect view  of  a  treatise  which,  attacking  the 
dualism  of  heathen  philosophy,  reduced  the 
universe  to  the  sway  of  one  absolute  Creator, 
working  with  the  aid  of  elements  springing 
always  from  some  higher  manifestation  until 
the  highest  was  reached  in  the  Infinite. 

The  second  work  is  the  "Zohar" 
("Splendor")*  whose  author  is  now  known 
to  be  Moses  ben  Shemtob  de  Leon,  who  lived 
in  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century 
in  Spain.  A  loosely  constructed  commentary 
on  the  Pentateuch,  it  forms  a  varied  theo- 
sophy  addressed  to  the  initiated  that  has 


What  Is  the  Cabala?          147 

secured  wide  attention.  It  has  developed 
from  a  system  of  metaphysics  into  that  of 
dogma,  worship,  and  ethics,  while  among  the 
subjects  discussed  are  God,  the  world,  the 
Messiah,  revelation,  sin,  atonement,  etc. 
The  "Zohar"  teaches  God  to  be  unknowable, 
as  the  Infinite,  designated  as  En-Sof  (without 
end).  As  the  finite  appears  existent  only 
through  the  light  of  the  Infinite,  the  view  was 
held  that  by  the  contraction  of  the  Divine 
light  the  visible  world  was  formed  in  a  series 
of  emanations  (Sephiroth) ,  the  first  being  the 
uncreated  eternal  Will.  As  the  creation 
separated  itself  from  the  Infinite,  deteriora- 
tion took  place  and  evil  was  produced.  The 
conflict  between  good  and  evil  is  no  blind 
chance  but  conscious  activity.  The  end  of 
evil  is  brought  about  by  mercy  and  goodness, 
depending  upon  the  superiority  of  the  spirit 
of  man  over  his  desires.  The  Messiah  will 
appear  when  the  mind  of  man  ceases  to  be  in 
disharmony.  Then  the  world  will  be  restored 
to  perfection,  and  Samael,  the  head  of  the 
demons  of  darkness,  will  be  vanquished. 

Intermingled  are  other  doctrines  or  views. 
The  Infinite  first  revealed  himself  in  his  son, 
Adam  Kadmon,  the  first  man  in  Ezekiel's 


148  What  Is  Judaism? 

vision,  whose  powers  are  the  ten  Sephiroth 
that  encircle  the  throne  of  the  Highest. 
These  are  called  crown,  wisdom,  under- 
standing, grace,  judgment,  beauty,  strength, 
splendour,  foundation,  kingdom.  Man  is 
more  than  body,  he  has  a  threefold  soul — 
animal,  moral,  and  intellectual.  After  the 
death  of  a  righteous  man,  the  intellectual 
soul  ascends  to  the  Infinite,  the  moral  enters 
paradise,  the  animal  remains  on  earth.  The 
soul  of  the  sinner  has  to  undergo  penance, 
wandering  from  body  to  body,  until  it  has 
secured  perfection  on  earth. 

The  critical  tendency  to-day  is  to  ascribe 
a  higher  ethical  value  to  the  Cabala,  which 
is  to  be  judged  not  from  special  forms  or 
aberrations,  but  as  an  entirety  and  from  its 
whole  range  of  traditional  development. 


CHAPTER  XII 

STORIES   FROM   THE   RABBIS 

THE  rabbis,  whose  wit  and  wisdom  are 
recorded  in  the  Talmud  and  Midrash, 
— writings  that  stretch  over  a  thousand 
years, — were  admirable  story-tellers.  They 
were  fond  of  the  parable,  the  anecdote,  the 
apt  illustration,  and  their  legends  that  have 
been  transmitted  to  us  possess  perennial 
charm.  The  common  impression  that  they 
were  rabbinical  Dryasdusts,  mere  dreamers 
always  buried  in  wearisome  disputations, 
abstruse  pedants  dwelling  in  a  world  of 
their  own,  is  wholly  unjust.  They  were 
more  than  ecclesiastics, — they  were  men ;  and 
their  cheerful  humanity  forms  the  secret  to 
their  character.  Their  background  was  rather 
sombre, — temple  and  nationality  destroyed, 
a  succession  of  foreign  taskmasters,  a  series 
of  wars  and  persecutions  that  would  have 
annihilated  any  other  race;  but  they  pre- 
149 


150  What  Is  Judaism? 

served,  none  the  less,  a  certain  buoyancy  and 
even  temper,  which  sprang  from  the  fulness 
and  sunniness  of  their  faith.  They  thought, 
and  studied,  and  debated ;  they  worked,  and 
dreamt,  and  cherished  hope, — 

"Like  a  poet  hidden 
In  the  light  of  thought, 
Singing  songs  unbidden, 
Till  the  world  is  wrought 
To  sympathy  with  hopes  and  fears  it  heeded  not." 

The  rich  harvest  of  rabbinical  stories  that 
survive  can  be  traced  to  rabbinical  buoyancy. 
It  is  a  quality  not  peculiar  to  the  rabbis ;  it  is 
distinctly  Oriental.  Nor  can  absolute  origi- 
nality be  claimed  for  rabbinical  legends;  they 
are  children  of  various  climes,  these  floating 
fairy-tales,  and  the  history  of  their  migration 
is  as  enchanting  as  the  stories  themselves. 
But  in  Palestine  and  Babylonia  they  received 
a  colouring  that  was  essentially  rabbinical. 
The  rabbis  were  preachers  par  excellence; 
they  lost  no  opportunity  to  point  a  moral. 
In  their  schools  of  instruction,  to  vary  the 
monotony  and  fasten  the  attention  of  their 
younger  disciples,  they  found  the  story  the 
best  and  most  convincing  sermon. 

Let  us  gather  a  few  of  these  tales  from 


Stories  from  the  Rabbis      151 

their  ancient  storehouse,  without  further 
preface,  and  present  them  in  simple  narra- 
tive form. 

In  a  year  when  prices  were  high,  a  pious 
man  gave  money  to  a  wandering  beggar.  His 
wife,  a  veritable  Xanthippe,  so  upbraided 
him  for  his  act  of  kindness  that  he  fled  from 
home,  and  spent  the  night — it  was  New 
Year's — in  the  graveyard.  There  in  the 
hush  and  stillness  of  the  hour,  he  heard  the 
departed  souls  of  two  maidens  hold  con- 
verse : 

"Fly  with  me,  dear  sister,"  said  the  one, 
"through  airy  space  to  heaven,  that  we  may 
learn  the  fate  of  the  coming  year."  "How 
can  I  leave  the  grave?"  the  other  replied. 
"I  have  not  been  buried  in  garments  suited 
for  so  long  a  flight.  Go  thou  alone,  and  let 
me  know  what  thou  nearest." 

Soon  the  maiden's  soul  returned,  with  the 
information  that  in  the  coming  year  the  early 
harvest  would  be  destroyed  by  hail,  but  the 
late  harvest  would  prosper.  The  pious  man 
heard  their  talk,  and  as  he  was  a  farmer  he 
acted  accordingly.  In  the  meanwhile  he  and 
his  wife  were  on  good  terms  again,  but  he 
could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  pass  the 


152  What  Is  Judaism? 

next  New  Year's  night  in  the  same  grave- 
yard. Again,  in  the  silence  of  the  place,  he 
heard  the  souls  of  the  maidens  in  mysterious 
converse,  and  now  their  story  was  reversed. 
During  the  coming  year  the  early  harvest 
was  to  flourish,  but  the  late  harvest  would  be 
destroyed  by  a  scorching  wind.  Again  the 
man  knew  how  to  profit  by  their  colloquy; 
and  while  all  his  neighbours  complained  of 
their  bad  fortune,  his  crops  were  richly 
blessed. 

Now  the  man's  wife  possessed  all  the 
curiosity  of  Bluebeard's  spouse.  She  asked 
her  husband  the  secret  of  his  good  luck,  and 
he  told  her.  Filled  with  the  news,  she 
hastened  to  the  mother  of  the  maiden  buried 
in  such  unsightly  fashion,  and  reviled  her 
for  her  conduct.  Once  more  the  New  Year 
arrived,  and  again  the  pious  man  spent  the 
night  in  the  graveyard.  But  when  a  tremu- 
lous maiden-soul  asked  its  companion  to 
accompany  it  through  space,  the  poor  child 
rejoined:  "Let  me  rest!  The  living  have 
heard  what  we  have  here  spoken  in  secret." 

Of  all  the  characters  in  the  Talmud, 
Rabba  bar  bar  Ghana  is  gifted  with  the 
liveliest  imagination.  He  is  a  Munchausen, 


Stories  from  the  Rabbis       153 

in  his  way,  and  the  stories  he  tells  of  wonder- 
ful adventures  on  sea  and  land  are  of  special 
interest.  There  have  not  been  wanting  com- 
mentators who  recognise  profound  wisdom 
in  this  rabbi's  hyperbole;  and  a  good  deal  of 
ingenuity  has  been  expended  in  unravelling 
his  metaphors.  In  a  sea-journey  he  saw 
a  fish  whose  back  was  covered  with  sand, 
and  grass  grew  thereon.  In  this  respect 
the  nineteenth-century  sea-serpent  was  sur- 
passed. He  thought  it  was  an  island,  and  he 
and  his  friends  landed  upon  it,  lit  a  fire,  and 
began  to  prepare  a  meal.  But  as  soon  as  the 
fish  felt  the  heat  he  turned  over,  and  all  the 
travellers  would  have  been  drowned  if  a 
passing  ship  had  not  rescued  them.  Another 
time  he  saw  a  frog  equal  to  sixty  houses  in 
size.  It  was  swallowed  by  a  serpent,  which, 
in  its  turn,  was  eaten  by  a  fish  that  rested 
upon  a  tree.  The  same  doughty  rabbi  sees 
a  bird,  whose  head  towers  skywards  while 
its  legs  rest  in  the  water;  and  he  tells  uncon- 
cernedly about  a  huge  fish,  whose  dead  body, 
cast  ashore  by  the  waves,  destroyed  sixty 
cities.  Sixty  other  cities  were  fed  by  its 
meat,  and  sixty  more  cities  were  supplied 
with  the  salted  remainder. 


154  What  Is  Judaism? 

More  poetical  is  the  rabbinical  legend  about 
David's  harp.  The  royal  Psalmist  slept  but 
little;  he  gave  precious  hours  to  the  study  of 
God's  law.  Over  his  bed  he  hung  his  harp, 
and  at  midnight,  moved  by  the  north  wind, 
it  poured  forth  of  itself  sweet  melody. 
Aroused  by  the  sound,  David  sprang  from 
his  couch,  and  spent  the  rest  of  the  night  in 
study  and  in  song.  Could  the  rabbis  have 
told  more  impressively  how  the  Psalms  were 
the  melody  of  David's  soul  stirred  by  pious 
emotion? 

To  illustrate  benevolence  as  a  typical 
virtue  of  womankind,  the  story  is  told  of 
Rabbi  Hillel's  wife  that  once  a  poor  man  came 
to  her,  and  piteously  begged  for  food.  Seeing 
his  famished  state,  she  impulsively  gave  him 
all  that  she  had  on  hand,  and  then  quietly 
set  to  work  to  prepare  a  fresh  meal.  When 
dinner  was  ready,  Hillel  asked  his  wife  the 
reason  of  the  delay.  She  told  him  what  she 
had  done,  and  her  husband  blessed  her  for 
her  piety  and  kindliness. 

The  rabbis  were  not  only  teachers,  but 
traders  as  well,  carrying  on  various  kinds  of 
business  for  their  livelihood.  That  they  were 
not  so  very  close  at  a  bargain,  a  suggestive 


Stories  from  the  Rabbis       155 

story  would  prove.  A  rabbi,  while  engaged 
in  prayer,  was  approached  by  a  customer, 
who  offered  a  certain  price  for  some  goods. 
He  continued  his  devotions  undisturbed.  In 
his  eagerness,  the  man  doubled  his  offer, 
thinking  that  the  rabbi's  silence  was  due  to 
his  being  dissatisfied  with  the  first  price. 
In  the  meantime,  the  prayer  came  to  an  end, 
and  the  rabbi  sold  the  goods  at  the  first  price 
offered.  He  was  satisfied  with  it,  and  only 
on  account  of  his  prayers  could  give  no 
answer. 

When  Herodotus  told  about  the  ring  of 
Polycrates,  he  hardly  imagined  that  the 
Talmud  would  furnish  a  parallel.  The  story 
is  a  practical  argument  in  favour  of  Sabbath 
observance.  There  lived  once  a  righteous 
Israelite,  who  was  known  far  and  near  for  his 
scrupulous  regard  for  the  Sabbath;  it  was  a 
day  he  held  in  such  high  honour  that  he 
spared  no  costs  to  give  it  a  holiday  aspect. 
The  Sabbath  among  the  Jews  was  never  a 
day  of  gloomy  asceticism.  Manual  labour 
was  forbidden,  but  the  atmosphere  was  a 
bright  and  joyous  one.  In  the  Israelite's 
vicinity  lived  a  heathen  of  great  wealth.  It 
was  foretold  to  the  latter  that  his  property 


156  What  Is  Judaism? 

should  fall  into  the  Jew's  hands.  Determined 
to  thwart  prophecy,  he  sold  all  his  fortune 
for  a  precious  gem,  which  he  sewed  in  his 
turban,  so  that  he  might  always  have  his 
property  with  him.  Once,  while  crossing  a 
bridge,  the  breeze  blew  his  turban  into  the 
water,  and  with  it  he  lost  his  dearly  prized 
jewel.  The  next  day  a  large  fish  was  brought 
to  market,  and  as  the  Israelite  wished  to  have 
it  for  his  Sabbath  meal,  he  secured  it  at  a 
high  price.  On  opening  it,  the  jewel  was 
discovered,  which  made  him  wealthy  for 
all  time. 

The  special  sanctity  attached  to  the  Sab- 
bath is  further  illustrated  in  a  story  told  of 
the  Emperor  Antoninus  and  Rabbi  Judah 
the  Holy.  They  were  on  friendly  terms  with 
each  other,  and  one  Sabbath  the  Emperor 
dined  with  the  rabbi,  and  found  the  cold  food 
very  appetising.  He  chanced  to  eat  another 
time  at  the  rabbi's  house, — it  was  on  a  week- 
day,— and  though  the  hot  repast  was  costly, 
this  did  not  taste  so  well  as  the  other.  "Can 
you  tell  me,  rabbi,"  the  Emperor  asked, 
"what  made  the  cold  food  so  appetising?" 
"There  was  a  certain  spice  used  in  its  pre- 
paration," the  rabbi  replied,  "which  is  called 


Stories  from  the  Rabbis       157 

Sabbath,  and  gives  every  dish  a  pleasant 
flavour."  "  Let  me  see  it,"  said  the  Emperor. 
"I  would  very  much  like  to  have  it  used  in 
my  kitchen."  "This  spice,"  the  rabbi 
answered,  "is  only  to  be  used  by  those  who 
keep  the  Sabbath  day  holy." 

A  fair  specimen  of  rabbinical  fancy  is  the 
following:  The  world  contains  ten  hard 
things.  The  mountain  is  hard;  iron  pierces 
it.  Iron  is  hard;  fire  melts  it.  Fire  is  hard; 
water  extinguishes  it.  Water  is  hard;  the 
cloud  carries  it.  The  cloud  is  hard;  the  air 
disperses  it.  The  air  is  hard;  man  endures 
it.  Man  is  hard;  care  bends  him.  Care  is 
hard;  wine  banishes  it.  Wine  is  hard;  sleep 
conquers  it.  But  death  is  harder  than  all 
things,  and  still  King  Solomon  maintains, 
"Benevolence  rescues  from  death." 

The  arrival  of  the  king  was  anxiously 
awaited  in  a  city.  The  streets  were  full  of 
people,  all  eager  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  their 
ruler's  face.  A  blind  rabbi,  Sheshet  by  name, 
mingled  in  the  crowd.  Next  to  him  stood  a 
man  who  asserted  scornfully,  "Whole  pitchers 
may  go  to  the  well, — what  do  broken  ones 
want?"  The  rabbi  observed  that  the  words 
were  applied  to  him  on  account  of  his  blind- 


158  What  Is  Judaism? 

ness,  and  answered  softly,  "Be  calm,  my 
friend ;  you  will  soon  be  convinced  that  I  see 
better  than  you."  Amid  great  noise  a  pro- 
cession approached.  "The  king  comes!" 
the  man  exclaimed.  "No,"  said  the  rabbi, 
"that  is  not  the  king."  A  second  train  of 
men  drew  near,  amid  the  wildest  uproar. 
"Now  it  is  the  king,"  said  the  man.  "No," 
replied  the  rabbi,  "again  you  are  mistaken." 
At  last  a  third  procession  approached,  and  a 
solemn  stillness  prevailed.  "Now  the  king 
has  arrived,"  said  the  rabbi,  and  it  was  truly 
so.  "How  can  you  know  this  in  your  blind- 
ness?" asked  the  man,  amazed.  "An  earthly 
sovereign,"  rejoined  the  rabbi,  "resembles  the 
heavenly  Monarch.  When  God  appeared  in 
the  wilderness  to  the  prophet  Elijah,  there  was 
storm,  fire,  and  earthquake.  Yet  in  all  these 
manifestations  of  nature  the  Deity  approached 
not.  It  was  only  when  a  light  breeze  stirred 
that  the  prophet  heard  the  voice  of  God." 

The  fondness  of  the  rabbis  for  allegory  is 
illustrated  in  the  following  anecdote.  Rabbi 
Gamaliel,  head  of  the  academy,  celebrated 
his  son's  wedding,  and  among  his  guests  were 
three  rabbis,  Elieser,  Joshua,  and  Sadok. 
Gamaliel  handed  a  goblet  of  wine  to  Elieser, 


Stories  from  the  Rabbis       159 

who  did  not  accept  it,  being  unwilling  to  be 
served  by  so  eminent  a  man.  It  was  next 
offered  to  Joshua,  who  quaffed  it  without  any 
hesitation.  "Is  it  proper,"  said  Elieser  to 
Joshua,  "that  we  are  seated  comfortably 
here,  and  allow  ourselves  to  be  waited  on 
by  our  master?"  "I  know  a  greater  man," 
Joshua  rejoined,  "who  waited  on  his  guests. 
Did  not  the  patriarch  Abraham  wait  upon 
visitors  whom  he  thought  to  be  Arabian 
travellers,  not  angels?"  "How  long,"  Sadok 
observed,  "will  you  talk  about  the  honour 
of  mankind,  and  forget  the  glory  of  the 
Creator !  Does  not  God  wait  upon  humanity  ? 
Does  he  not  let  the  winds  blow  and  the  clouds 
descend?  Does  he  not  send  rain  to  fructify 
the  soil,  that  plants  may  spring  forth?  Does 
he  not  then  set  the  table  for  every  human 
being?" 

For  every  human  being !  That  was  the  gentle 
universalism  of  the  rabbis;  and  while  in  times 
of  sharp  distress  and  bitter  recrimination,  their 
utterances  were  human  in  their  passion  and 
agony,  that  spirit  of  broad  humanity  was  never 
wholly  absent.  A  heathen,  said  Rabbi  Meir, 
who  occupies  himself  with  the  law  of  God 
stands  in  the  same  rank  as  the  high-priest. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

WHAT  MAKES   A   JEW? 

P\ESPITE  the  remarkable  progress  of 
*— ^  our  age  in  every  sphere,  it  is  peculiar 
what  ignorance  prevails  in  reference  to  the 
Jew  and  Judaism. 

The  search-light  of  history  seems  here  to 
have  failed,  and  it  is  the  caricature  which  is 
most  frequently  in  the  popular  mind,  fed 
on  the  vulgar  types  that  appear  on  the  stage 
and  in  the  comic  press. 

Even  when  the  Jew  is  made  the  subject  of 
serious  discussion  among  thoughtful  and  cul- 
tured people,  his  atmosphere  is  that  of  an 
antique :  he  is  supposed  to  be  living  in  a  shell, 
wearing  a  huge  white  beard,  and  mumbling 
Hebrew  prayers,  with  occasional  intervals 
to  take  unfair  advantage  of  his  neighbour  or 
competitor.  In  legend  he  is  Ahasuerus  the 
Wanderer,  with  no  rest  for  his  weary  feet, 

but  ever  a  mark  for  ridicule  and  insult  as  he 
1 60 


What  Makes  a  Jew?         161 

passes  from  land  to  land  a  helpless,  sorrow- 
stricken  fugitive. 

Such  are  the  mysteries  of  Providence,  that 
the  glorious  history  of  the  Jew  ages  ago,  with 
temple,  court,  commerce,  army,  and  all  the 
paraphernalia  of  a  prosperous  state  as  it 
existed  before  the  death-grapple  with  Rome, 
appears  like  a  legend,  while  the  legend  of 
Ahasuerus  is  realised  in  each  period  of  per- 
secution, in  every  fugitive  to-day  from  Russia 
and  Poland,  whom  the  entire  civilised  world, 
except  our  own  God-favoured  America,  com- 
mands to  "move  on!" 

The  persistence  of  popular  ignorance  is  due 
to  the  anomalous  position  which  the  Jews 
have  occupied  within  very  recent  decades, 
in  nearly  every  land.  Since  the  French 
Revolution,  civil  and  religious  liberty  has 
made  gigantic  strides,  it  is  true,  but  the 
Ghetto  walls  have  not  wholly  disappeared 
abro.ad;  and  even  at  home  the  process  of 
social  emancipation  has  not  been  completed. 
If  the  world  has  long  banished  them  from 
fellowship  and  treated  them  as  outcasts, 
the  Jews  themselves  cannot  be  blamed  for 
clinging  here  and  there  to  their  Ghetto  and 
forming  an  exclusive  class,  disdaining  inter- 


1 62  What  Is  Judaism? 

course  with  their  neighbours  of  a  different 
faith,  and  cherishing  olden  dreams  and  aspira- 
tions out  of  place  in  our  nineteenth  century 
existence.  Under  such  conditions,  how  was 
it  possible  for  the  world  to  learn  what  makes 
the  Jew  and  Judaism? 

Happily  a  new  era  is  dawning — the  world 
is  entering  upon  a  new  phase,  which  empha- 
sises the  humanity  of  the  religions,  not  the 
religions  of  humanity,  and  which  arrays  as 
partners,  not  competitors,  the  faiths  that 
make  for  God,  virtue,  and  immortality.  It 
is  becoming  understood  at  last  that  there  is  one 
Commander  and  army,  however  numerous  the 
divisions  and  banners  and  diverse  the  uni- 
forms and  equipments.  In  the  struggle  to 
uplift  and  reform,  to  teach  and  to  refine,  to 
plant  "a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,"  even 
the  Jew's  modest  rights  are  recognised  in  the 
ranks  and  his  co-operation  is  no  longer 
spurned.  In  our  era  of  upheaval  in  every 
sphere,  when  faith  and  unfaith  are  locked  in  a 
closer  struggle  than  ever  before,  more  inter- 
est is  commencing  to  be  shown  in  the  character 
and  acquirements  of  the  Jew,  whose  Law  and 
Psalms  and  Prophets  form  an  integral  portion 
of  the  spiritual  wealth  of  mankind. 


What  Makes  a  Jew?         163 

It  is  by  no  means  so  simple  an  inquiry — 
What  makes  the  Jew?  Because  the  reluc- 
tance which  the  Jewish  people  always  felt  as 
to  formulating  creeds  and  defining  Judaism 
still  continues.  In  Biblical  times,  the  priest, 
who  emphasised  the  form,  and  the  prophet, 
who  emphasised  the  spirit,  were  both  Jews — 
to  employ  a  convenient  appellation.  When 
the  shadows  of  approaching  dissolution  were 
darkening  Jerusalem,  the  Pharisee,  Sadducee, 
and  Essene,  representing  different  schools  of 
thought,  were  Jews  all  the  same.  The 
Karaite  of  the  early  Middle  Ages  was  no  less 
a  Jew  than  the  rabbinical  followers  of  tra- 
dition. The  rationalistic  Jew  of  the  United 
States  and  the  superstitious  Jew  of  Galicia 
who  believes  in  the  Cabala  more  than 
the  Law  of  Moses,  are  brethren  and  co- 
religionists, however  vast  the  gulf  between 
them. 

The  Jew  is  proud  that  the  unity  of  Judaism 
is  organic,  not  mechanical,  that  it  admits  of 
phases  of  development  and  promotes  a 
healthy  conflict  of  opinion.  It  is  no  cast-iron 
creed,  demanding  absolute  uniformity  and 
threatening  excommunication  to  the  non- 
conformist. It  is  a  religion,  not  a  theology; 


164  What  Is  Judaism? 

a  life,  not  a  creed;  practical  performance, 
not  abstract  doctrine;  action,  not  theory. 

Because  Judaism  is  so  broad  and  progress- 
ive, adapting  itself  to  each  new  environment, 
the  Jew  has  survived  and  his  original  Semit- 
ism  has  developed  into  a  cosmopolitanism 
that  makes  him  a  citizen  of  every  land  which 
assures  him  civil  and  religious  liberty.  He 
can  be  conservative  in  England,  liberal  in 
Germany,  a  pietist  in  Poland,  a  mystic  in 
Turkey,  and  wear  in  the  United  States  an 
intellectual  coat  of  many  colours  which  would 
astound  his  brethren  in  India. 

Many  are  the  elements  which  make  the 
Jew.  It  is  not  birth  and  tradition  alone,  but 
his  environment  as  well,  and  the  play  of 
subtle  indefinable  conditions  which  affect 
his  individuality  and  consciousness.  He 
belongs  to  a  community  which  is  the  reverse 
of  inquisitorial,  which  demands  no  assent  to 
formal  articles  of  belief,  but  takes  it  for 
granted  that  he  is  in  sympathy  with  the 
essentials  of  his  ancestral  religion  by  the 
mere  fact  of  his  being  a  Jew.  Even  in  lands 
where  the  synagogue  exercises  ecclesiastical 
privileges,  there  is  no  attempt  made  to  inter- 
fere with  the  individual.  Of  course,  in  the 


What  Makes  a  Jew?         165 

United  States,  where  the  rabbi  is  simply  a 
teacher,  not  an  ecclesiastic,  and  each  syn- 
agogue's autonomy  is  strictly  maintained, 
the  utmost  liberty  is  the  order  of  the  day.  A 
Jew  may  never  attend  the  synagogue  of 
which  he  is  a  member  or  may  not  belong  to 
any  Jewish  congregation  at  all;  he  is  still  a 
Jew. 

It  would  seem  that  the  general  unwilling- 
ness in  the  past  to  define  Judaism  was  not 
without  a  wise  purpose,  as  it  has  certainly 
maintained  a  healthy  spirit  of  toleration  and 
brotherhood,  and  kept  alive  a  certain  national 
religious  consciousness  centuries  after  the 
extinction  of  nationality  and  temple-worship. 
In  fact,  Judaism's  real  history  may  be  said 
to  have  begun  when  the  Jew  was  forced  in 
earnest  to  make  the  world,  not  Palestine,  his 
home.  In  all  the  various  stages  of  Israel's 
development,  from  Mosaism  to  Prophetism, 
from  Prophetism  to  Talmudism,  from  Tal- 
mudism  to  Rabbinism,  from  Rabbinism  to 
Modern  Judaism,  the  law  of  progress  and 
adaptation  has  left  its  indelible  mark.  And 
that  law  is  still  continuing  in  the  tendencies 
of  each  generation,  in  the  change  of  form  and 
the  conflict  of  opinions. 


1 66  What  Is  Judaism? 

It  might,  then,  be  asked,  Is  nothing  fixed 
in  Judaism?  Is  there  no  solid  basis,  but  are 
its  foundations  shifting  from  age  to  age? 
Surely  Judaism  must  mean  something,  it 
cannot  mean  everything.  The  Jews  are 
usually  associated  with  precise  customs  and 
beliefs,  which  are  supposed  to  have  made 
them  what  they  are,  and  stamped  them  as  a 
peculiar  people. 

Judaism  has  an  adamantine  basis  in  the 
belief  in  God,  which  is  not  a  dogma  but  an 
intuition,  whose  attributes  are  unity,  incor- 
poreality,  eternity,  and  omnipotence.  But 
it  is  not  a  mere  mystical  belief  in  a  blind 
Power  which  is  at  the  root  of  Judaism.  The 
reality  of  Revelation  is  its  second  principle — 
the  revealing  on  Sinai  through  Moses,  and 
the  confirmation  through  the  prophets,  of 
laws  and  statutes,  the  moral  and  ceremonial 
law — the  immutability  of  the  Torah  (Law  of 
Moses).  As  a  necessary  corollary  to  this 
principle  comes  a  third — future  reward  and 
punishment  for  those  who  obey  or  transgress 
the  Divine  Law.  Compensation  in  the  here- 
after implies  the  soul's  immortality. 

These  are  the  three  essential  working 
principles  of  Judaism,  based  primarily  on  the 


What  Makes  a  Jew?         167 

Pentateuch,  supported  by  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  general,  and  interpreted  by  the 
masters  of  tradition,  whose  views  are  pre- 
served in  Talmud  and  later  rabbinical  digests. 
It  is  these  which  have  been  Israel's  pre- 
servative and  saved  the  Jew  from  becoming 
a  mere  Bedouin  in  the  continuous  warfare 
and  travail  of  thousands  of  years.  Happily, 
too,  whatever  varying  views  were  held  as  to 
these  principles  and  interpretations,  amid  all 
the  exaggerations  and  aberrations  to  which 
they  were  subjected,  to  describe  which  be- 
longs properly  to  the  future  historian  of 
Jewish  religious  thought,  the  ethical  beauty 
of  prophet,  psalmist,  and  later  rabbinical 
sage,  is  unquestioned.  The  study  of  the  Law, 
too,  in  its  ramifications,  through  the  long 
chain  of  traditional  development,  has  con- 
tributed largely  to  Jewish  intellectual  acumen, 
and  rescued  the  Jew  from  torpor  when  no 
other  occupation  was  allowed  him. 

Another  and  weighty  factor  in  the  making 
of  the  Jew,  whose  importance  is  recognised 
even  by  those  who  no  longer  acknowledge  the 
authority  of  the  ceremonial  code  in  our 
enlightened  era,  has  been  the  ritual,  as 
embodied  in  "signs"  and  observances,  like 


168  What  Is  Judaism? 

the  Sabbath  and  festivals,  in  the  enact- 
ments for  the  home  and  synagogue.  Their 
aim  was  not  only  to  weld  the  Jews  to- 
gether and  keep  them  a  separate  com- 
munity, which  should  quarantine  them, 
so  to  speak,  from  idolatry  and  secure  the 
permanence  of  their  God-idea,  but  to  pro- 
mote their  moral  and  physical  well-being, 
to  ensure  a  high  degree  of  self-control 
over  passion  and  appetite,  and  to  maintain 
family  happiness  and  purity.  In  the  life  of 
the  average  Jew,  forms  and  ceremonies,  rites 
and  prayers,  are  firmly  established  and  can 
render  a  useful  service  in  perpetuating 
spiritual  truths.  They  are  not  necessarily 
clogs  on  the  moral  growth,  but  may  prove 
spurs  to  progress  as  mute  yet  eloquent 
reminders  of  the  Divine  in  our  everyday 
existence.  The  letter  does  not  always  kill — 
the  spirit  could  not  exist  without  it. 

The  Jew  does  not  make  proselytes;  he 
believes  that  "the  pious  of  all  nations  have 
a  share  in  future  bliss."  Not  the  less  firmly 
are  his  aspirations  universal,  not  tribal.  His 
hope  is  in  the  perfectibility  of  humanity. 
The  dawn  of  God's  kingdom  on  earth,  when 
God's  "unity  shall  be  acknowledged  by  a 


What  Makes  a  Jew?         169 

world  one  in  spirit  and  aim,  is  his  highest 
ideal.  He  clings  to  his  religion,  antique  but 
not  antiquated,  breathing  new  life  into  old 
forms,  until  that  dawn  shall  arise. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  SYNAGOGUE 

THE  story  of  the  synagogue  is  practically 
the  story  of  the  Jewish  people  from 
the  Babylonian  captivity  through  successive 
eras  in  their  history  in  the  East  and  West, 
with  the  alternate  light  and  shade,  to  the 
nineteenth  century  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  in  nearly  every  land.  Such  a  survey 
would  hardly  be  complete  without  a  detailed 
study  of  the  rise  and  growth  of  the  synagogue 
in  the  Orient,  its  gradual  spread  as  the  Jew 
began  to  colonise  outside  of  Palestine  even 
before  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus, 
its  appearance  in  Egypt,  Asia  Minor,  and 
Italy,  and  then  in  Central  Europe  and  Spain. 
A  careful  inquiry,  too,  would  investigate  the 
influence  of  clime  and  conditions  on  syna- 
gogue architecture.  How  much  of  this  was 
original  and  how  much  borrowed,  consciously 
or  not?  Did  its  development  run  parallel 
170 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue     171 

with  the  mosque  and  church,  adopting 
features  from  both?  Or  did  it  escape  wholly 
foreign  influences  and  develop  along  its  own 
lines?  What,  further,  was  the  origin  of  the 
synagogue's  interior  arrangement  and  what 
principles  underlay  its  entire  construction? 

It  is  impossible  within  present  limits  to 
give  any  exhaustive  history  of  the  synagogue 
and  its  architecture,  which  can  be  treated 
from  many  points  of  view,  whether  of  art, 
religion,  or  archaeology.  It  will  be  sufficient 
merely  to  introduce  the  reader  to  the  subject, 
and  sketch  in  outline  only  the  synagogue's 
eventful  story  which  awaits  its  capable 
historian.  There  is  no  lack  of  works  which 
illustrate  the  church  and  its  history  from  the 
earliest  date.  Stately  cathedrals  whose 
foundations  were  laid  in  the  early  Middle 
Ages  still  survive  with  all  their  splendour  to 
attract  the  worshipper  and  delight  the 
tourist.  Superb  specimens  of  various  schools 
of  architecture,  they  embody  a  spiritual 
beauty  and  power  which  uplift  for  the  time 
thousands  of  visitors.  Pictures  of  interior 
and  exterior  appear  in  guide-books  or  are 
made  the  subject  of  more  or  less  elaborate 
volumes.  Distinguished  churchmen  come  to 


172  What  Is  Judaism? 

our  shores  and  lecture  on  the  historic  fanes 
of  Europe,  while  our  artists  and  architects 
turn  for  instruction  and  inspiration  to  their 
marvellous  lines  beneath  the  open  sky, 
whether  in  England  or  Italy,  France  or 
Germany,  Belgium  or  Spain;  and  they 
reproduce  for  us  vital  elements  in  the  church 
architecture  of  the  past. 

What  a  contrast  is  offered  by  the  syna- 
gogue! A  few  of  the  best  examples  of 
mediaeval  architecture  were  transformed  into 
churches  in  Spain  and  Italy,  and  are  no  more 
distinctly  recognised  as  synagogues  in  the 
manuals  of  art.  Others,  built  in  times  of 
comparative  ease,  have  long  since  been 
destroyed  by  fire  or  in  popular  outbreak.  A 
few  ruins  in  Upper  Galilee,  half -prophetic  in 
their  sad  suggestiveness ;  a  traditional  site 
here  and  there  in  the  East,  with  legend  and 
history  indistinguishable;  a  synagogue  in 
Jerusalem  which  dates  from  the  ninth  cen- 
tury; a  Romanesque  specimen  at  Worms  of 
about  the  year  noo;  a  humble  Gothic 
edifice  in  Prague,  parts  of  which  are  of  the 
twelfth  or  thirteenth  century — this  completes 
the  record  of  the  archaeologist.  It  is  a 
miracle  that  any  survived  in  later  periods  of 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue    173 

still  more  relentless  persecution.  Yet  one  can 
view  synagogues  from  the  sixteenth,  seven- 
teenth, and  eighteenth  centuries  in  Holland, 
Germany,  Italy,  Russia,  and  the  Orient, 
although  but  few  of  them  are  remarkable 
enough  to  attract  many  pilgrims  and  sight- 
seers. The  oldest  synagogue  in  London  was 
originally  built  in  1702;  the  Touro  Syna- 
gogue in  Newport,  R.  I.,  in  pure  Colonial 
style,  was  erected  in  1762.  If  we  exclude  the 
splendid  synagogues  which  have  appeared 
within  the  past  forty  or  fifty  years,  and  which 
represent  every  style  from  the  Classic  to  the 
Renaissance,  but  offer  little,  if  any,  original 
contribution  to  synagogue  architecture,  the 
material  is  meagre  indeed  for  illustration  and 
comment. 

The  synagogue  was  always  a  living  organ- 
ism, an  institutional  church  nearly  from  the 
beginning.  School,  house  of  prayer,  law 
court,  house  of  assembly,  it  was  to  become 
occasionally  a  fortress,  where  the  people  were 
to  withstand  the  enemy  or  perish  amid  the 
flames  of  the  sanctuary.  One  reads  with 
horror  of  Becket  struck  to  death  at  the  altar 
—but  thousands  have  fallen  in  the  syna- 
gogues, old  and  young  men,  women,  and 


174  What  Is  Judaism? 

children,  uplifting  their  voices  in  praise  and 
prayer  as  they  were  led  to  slaughter.  The 
buildings  were  singularly  plain,  judging  from 
the  rude  prints  of  many  mediaeval  syna- 
gogues, but  they  produce  the  impression  of 
heroic  endeavour  and  simple  living  which  is 
suggested  by  the  thought  of  the  old  log  cabin 
in  the  Ohio  Valley  or  the  New  England 
meeting-house  of  an  earlier  generation.  What 
need  of  elaborate  ornament,  when  external 
splendour  would  only  the  sooner  have 
aroused  popular  tumult  and  doomed  the 
structure  to  speedier  overthrow.  So  often  in 
the  centre  of  a  court-yard,  amid  the  Ghetto's 
narrow  lanes  and  dwellings  built  in  close 
contact,  the  unpretentious  synagogue  was 
reared.  No  private  house — such  was  the 
pious  rule — was  to  surpass  it  in  height.  In 
the  East,  under  Mohammedan  sway,  the 
synagogue  could  not  be  higher  than  the 
mosque;  and  in  Armenia,  when  their  wily 
masters  built  the  fane  designedly  low,  the 
synagogue  was  constructed  still  more  hum- 
bly, so  that  the  worshippers  were  most 
comfortable,  perhaps,  when  they  literally 
prostrated  themselves  in  prayer. 

In  Central  Europe  the  synagogue  was  the 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue    175 

centre  of  communal  life.  Here  the  ancient 
liturgy,  with  its  Leitmotif  more  national  than 
individual,  was  recited  with  the  earnestness 
of  the  Covenanters.  It  is  as  well  to  learn, 
however,  that  the  atmosphere  was  not  one 
of  narrowness  or  repression.  God  was 
described  in  the  historic  ritual  as  the  "God 
of  all  flesh"  and  "of  all  nations,"  and  the 
lesson  was  enforced  that  all  men  are  brethren, 
with  religion  no  weekly  parade  but  a  daily 
exercise  in  godliness.  If  one  considers  for  a 
moment  that  the  mediaeval  liturgy  was  com- 
posed in  an  era  of  hostility  and  oppression, 
its  breadth  and  beauty  are  all  the  more 
remarkable.  His  old  prayer-book  is  the 
Jew's  only  book  of  martyrs;  and  while  it 
indulges  now  and  then  in  "righteous  indig- 
nation," as  the  modern  theologian  might 
express  it,  pious  resignation  is  the  more 
dominant  note. 

The  inner  history  of  the  synagogue  is 
intensely  human.  It  was  never  inaccessible 
like  the  sacred  monastery  in  the  Himalayas, 
far  away  from  the  busy  world,  but  it  was 
close  to  each  one's  experience  and  reflected 
the  joy  or  sorrow  of  everyday  life.  It  was 
the  meeting-place  of  the  community,  long 


176  What  Is  Judaism? 

before  the  modern  town-hall  proved  the 
people's  resort  in  stirring  times,  and  it 
became  inexpressibly  dear  to  each  individual. 
Here  the  bridegroom  worshipped  on  the 
Sabbath  after  his  marriage  and  was  "called 
to  the  Law"  wearing  the  praying-scarf 
which  his  bride,  who  sat  so  proudly  in  the 
latticed  gallery,  had  embroidered  and  given 
as  her  wedding  gift.  Here  the  tender  babe 
was  brought  on  its  first  outing  and  made  to 
touch  the  sacred  scroll  of  the  Pentateuch. 
Here  the  grateful  mother  came  to  pray  after 
her  child's  birth.  Here  the  orphan  and  the 
mourner  recited  with  much  devotion  the  pre- 
scribed benediction  which  made  them  praise 
the  Almighty  even  in  the  shadow  of  sorrow. 
Nor  was  the  sinner  forgotten — here  he  did  pen- 
ance, of  which  solemn  act  Uriel  Acosta  was  an 
illustrious  exemplar;  for  he  was  flogged,  al- 
though in  "a  retired  corner,"  in  the  Amster- 
dam synagogue  in  1633.  Further  proof  of 
the  popular  interest  in  the  house  of  worship  is 
shown  by  records  extant  of  public  announce- 
ments on  Saturday  in  synagogue  of  the  results 
of  law-suits  and  of  properties  in  the  market, 
while  lost  articles  were  openly  cried  and  a 
proclamation  of  stolen  goods  was  instituted. 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue     177 

The  original  synagogue  is  traced  in  legend 
to  King  Jehoiachin  of  Judah,  who,  a  captive 
in  Babylonia,  founded  such  a  place  of  as- 
sembly in  the  district  of  Nehardea.  Cer- 
tainly places  of  worship  of  some  character 
must  have  been  established  in  the  land  of  the 
captivity,  and  the  institution  was  probably 
transplanted  to  Palestine  on  the  return. 
Ezra  is  expressly  mentioned  (Neh.  viii.)  as 
calling  the  people  to  prayer  and  instruction, 
he  himself  reading  the  Law,  as  he  and  the 
heads  of  the  community  stand  upon  a  wooden 
platform  in  the  centre  of  the  assembled 
worshippers.  The  intellectual  character  of 
the  synagogue,  which  was  not  for  prayers 
only,  was  thus  early  emphasised. 

The  spread  of  the  synagogue  was  rapid, 
even  before  the  final  downfall  of  the  Temple. 
It  must  have  been  a  public  necessity,  to 
infer  from  references  in  the  Talmud  to  480 
synagogues  in  Jerusalem  which  were  required 
for  the  host  of  "foreign  Jews  who  visited 
the  Temple  when  its  sacrificial  service  was  in 
full  swing.  Thus,  in  the  shadow  of  the 
larger  house  were  synagogues  of  the  Alex- 
andrians, Libertines,  Cyrenians,  Elymaeans, 
and  Asiatics.  In  Egypt,  where  there  lived, 


178  What  Is  Judaism? 

according  to  Philo,  nearly  a  million  Jews, 
was  a  famous  synagogue,  the  Basilica,  in 
Alexandria,  one  of  the  wonders  of  its  age. 
Many  are  the  allusions  in  the  New  Testament 
to  synagogues  in  Damascus,  Antioch,  Athens, 
Corinth,  and  elsewhere,  outside  the  limits  of 
Palestine,  and  to  Nazareth  and  Capernaum 
upon  its  soil.  In  the  reign  of  Augustus 
Caesar,  Rome  had  many  synagogues,  which 
led  to  the  conversion  of  some  men  and  women 
of  prominence,  as  the  Romans  of  both  sexes 
found  pleasure  in  visiting  the  places  of  wor- 
ship, even  if  in  later  years  the  Jew  and  his 
festivals  became  the  sport  of  the  satirists. 
When  the  Christians  of  Rome  in  after 
centuries  burnt  down  a  synagogue,  and 
Maximus,  the  usurper,  commanded  the 
Roman  Senate  to  rebuild  it  at  the  expense 
of  the  state,  in  derision  he  was  termed  a  Jew 
by  Ambrosius  of  Milan.  Gradually  to  the 
East  and  the  West  and  the  isles  of  the  sea 
the  synagogue  spread,  and  whether  by  the 
running  stream  or  seashore,  to  admit  of 
ablutions,  in  crowded  cities  or  in  forest  or 
deserted  village,  far  distant  from  the  track 
of  the  caravan,  it  resisted  every  attack  and 
became  the  people's  stronghold. 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue     179 

As  was  the  custom  among  Christian  and 
Mohammedan,  the  synagogue  was  often 
built  close  to  the  tombs  of  famous  rabbis  or 
ascribed  to  them  as  founders.  The  celebrated 
Petachia  in  his  travels,  towards  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  century,  tells  of  seeing  at  Nisibis 
two  synagogues  erected  by  Ezra  the  Scribe, 
and  at  Bagdad  three,  including  the  one  which 
tradition  refers  to  Daniel.  At  Tiberias  he 
visited  the  synagogue  founded  by  Joshua, 
and  at  Damascus  the  four  reared  by  Elieser 
ben  Asariah,  a  rabbi  of  the  first  Christian 
century.  Petachia  was  no  Munchausen,  but 
gave  the  story  as  he  was  told.  Alexandria 
has  a  so-called  Elijah  synagogue,  which 
derives  its  name  from  the  legend  that  Elijah 
dwelt  for  a  time  on  the  spot.  Into  its 
neighbouring  houses  weak  and  ailing  Jews 
and  Mohammedans  are  piously  borne  in  the 
fond  hope  that  Elijah,  who,  among  other 
traditional  qualities,  restores  to  health,  may 
heal  their  wounds  and  infirmities.  You  can 
still  be  shown  at  Tiberias  Rabbi  Meir's 
synagogue,  and  near  Safet  the  synagogue 
ascribed  to  the  illustrious  Simon  ben  Jochai. 

The  list  of  famous  synagogues,  while  not 
lengthy,  includes  some  of  historic  interest. 


i8o  What  Is  Judaism? 

It  begins  with  the  Basilica  of  Alexandria, 
which  fell  when  the  prosperous  Jewish  com- 
munity vanished  in  a  sudden  whirlwind  of 
persecution  (about  no  of  the  common  era). 
To  paraphrase  the  description  in  the  Talmud, 
he  who  never  beheld  it  never  saw  the  majesty 
of  Israel.  It  was  like  a  basilica,  colonnade 
within  colonnade,  crowded  often  with  a  host 
of  people  twice  as  large  as  departed  with 
Moses  from  Egypt.  There,  too,  could  be 
seen  golden  chairs  inlaid  with  precious  stones 
corresponding  in  number  with  the  seventy 
elders  of  the  Sanhedrim,  the  cost  of  each  seat 
being  estimated  at  twenty-five  million  golden 
denarii.  On  an  elevation  of  wood  in  the 
centre  stood  the  choir  leader.  Each  guild — 
for  the  different  arts  and  trades  had  their 
separate  guilds  before  the  practice  arose  in 
the  German  mediaeval  towns,  with  which 
it  is  usually  associated — had  its  own  place, 
so  that  a  stranger  might  recognise  his  own 
trade  and  join  his  comrades.  The  responses 
of  the  vast  congregation  had  to  be  directed 
by  a  flag  signal,  so  immense  was  the  edifice. 
It  was  in  Spain  where  synagogues  of  sur- 
passing beauty  began  to  be  built.  The  age 
was  called  a  golden  one  for  art,  science,  and 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue     181 

literature,  centuries  before  Shakespeare.  But 
the  breathing  spell  for  the  Jew  was  not  of 
long  continuance.  When  Cordova  fell,  in 
1148,  its  magnificent  synagogues  were  de- 
stroyed. Toledo  had  a  number  of  splendidly 
built  homes  of  worship,  two  of  which  exist 
after  varied  transformations  and  arouse  the 
visitor's  admiration.  El  Transito  was  con- 
structed by  the  largess  of  Samuel  Abulafia, 
m  I357-  Partly  Gothic  and  partly  Moorish, 
it  retains  traces  of  its  former  grandeur.  It 
consists  of  several  naves  separated  from  each 
other  by  columns  and  arches.  The  upper 
part  of  the  walls  is  decorated  with  delicately 
cut  arabesques,  within  which  can  be  read 
Psalm  Ixxx.  in  Hebrew,  in  white  characters 
on  green  ground.  Inscriptions  in  bas-relief 
on  the  north  and  south  sides  recite  the 
merits  of  the  founder  and  of  Don  Pedro  of 
Castile.  By  a  sudden  change  of  fortune, 
Abulafia,  once  Don  Pedro's  trusted  treasurer 
and  adviser,  died  under  the  torture,  only 
three  years  after  the  synagogue  was  com- 
pleted (1360).  He  was  spared  the  knowledge 
that  150  years  later  the  edifice  was  to  be 
changed  into  a  church,  which  was  no  rare 
proceeding  in  the  Middle  Ages,  it  being 


1 82  What  Is  Judaism? 

easier  to  convert  a  synagogue  than  its 
worshippers.  To-day  it  is  being  restored  by 
the  Spanish  Government ;  the  gypsum  which 
was  plentifully  employed  to  hide  the  decora- 
tions is  to  be  removed — a  kindly  act  on  the 
part  of  the  authorities,  although  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  the  edifice  would  again  be  used  by  the 
Jewish  community,  unless  the  latter  be 
considerably  increased  by  fresh  accessions. 

The  Portuguese  synagogue  in  Amsterdam, 
with  its  memories  of  Spinoza;  the  Bevis 
Marks  synagogue,  London,  originally  built 
in  1702,  and  for  which  the  Quaker  architect 
would  receive  no  remuneration  except  its 
actual  cost  (£2750),  and  in  whose  roof  was 
incorporated  as  a  gift  from  Queen  Anne  a 
beam  from  a  royal  ship;  the  synagogue  at 
Venice,  whose  architect  was  Sansovino,  and 
which  dates  from  the  sixteenth  century,  in 
the  spacious  style  of  the  time,  suggesting  the 
wealth  and  culture  of  its  Jewish  residents; 
the  Old-New  Synagogue  at  Prague,  around 
which  cluster  fanciful  legends;  the  old 
synagogue  at  Worms,  with  its  traditions  of 
the  famous  commentator  Rashi,  both 
crowned  with  venerable  age  and  the  dignity 
of  pilgrim  shrines — these,  perhaps,  complete 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue     183 

the  roll  of  the  most  memorable  synagogues 
in  Central  Europe.  In  the  far  East,  however, 
are  various  synagogues  which  have  a  remark- 
able antiquity,  if  we  are  to  believe  the 
credulous.  It  is  very  probable  that  the  origin 
of  most  of  them  is  draped  in  as  much  myth 
as  the  once  curious  synagogue  at  Kai  Fung 
Foo,  in  the  province  of  Honan,  China,  before 
poverty  dismantled  the  edifice  and  sold  its 
ornaments  and  holy  equipment  for  bread 
and  raiment. 

In  a  letter  from  Venice  Goethe  tells  how 
he  succeeded  in  hearing  anew  the  classical 
song  of  the  gondolier,  whose  melody,  with  its 
memories  of  Tasso  and  Ariosto,  had  long 
since  been  silenced.  To  gain  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  synagogue,  we  must  put 
ourselves  en  rapport  with  its  conditions  in 
every  age,  and  then  can  we  appreciate  its 
powers  of  resistance.  In  the  fifth  century 
the  building  of  new  synagogues  was  prohib- 
ited by  Theodosius  II.,  whose  decree  was 
renewed  with  increased  severity  by  Justinian, 
a  century  later.  Theodoric  gave  no  hearty 
assent  to  the  request  of  the  Jews  of  Genoa 
to  be  allowed  to  put  their  synagogue  into 
better  repair,  but  he  was  kindlier  disposed 


1 84  What  Is  Judaism? 

when  he  condemned  the  Roman  commune 
to  pay  for  the  synagogue  which  a  mob  in  the 
imperial  city  had  burnt.  A  synagogue  in 
Sicily  was  destroyed  by  Gregory  I.  Omar  I. 
showed  little  consideration  to  church  or 
synagogue,  while  Omar  II.  (717-20),  wrote 
to  his  governors:  "Do  not  pull  down  a 
church  or  synagogue,  but  do  not  allow  new 
ones  to  be  built."  New  synagogues  were 
prohibited  by  law  in  the  reign  of  Alfonso  X. 
of  Castile  (1252-84).  The  Jews  of  England 
were  forbidden  by  Stephen  Langton,  at  the 
Council  of  Oxford  (1222), to  erect  synagogues. 
In  1442  the  Bishop  of  Leon  and  Castile 
received  a  decree  from  Pope  Eugenius  IV., 
forbidding  the  building  of  new  synagogues. 
Against  the  synagogues  of  Antioch  how  Chry- 
sostom  thundered,  calling  them  infamous 
theatres  and  dens  of  robbers.  Theodosius 
the  Great  (379-395)  expressly  commanded 
the  Bishop  of  Callinicus  in  Northern  Meso- 
potamia to  rebuild  at  his  own  expense 
the  synagogue  which  he  had  caused  to  be 
burnt — an  act  of  justice  which  was  imitated 
by  the  Byzantine  Emperor,  Arcadius  (395- 
408),  who  protected  the  synagogue  against 
the  clergy  of  Illyria.  While  Cyril  of  Alexan- 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue    185 

dria,  whose  name  will  always  be  associated 
with  Hypatia's  death,  induced  the  mob  to 
destroy  the  synagogue  in  that  city,  Theodo- 
sius  II.  made  the  clergy  and  people  of  Antioch 
restore  the  synagogue  to  the  Jews.  Martin 
V.,  who  in  1419  issued  a  bull  wherein  it  was 
stated  that  Jews  should  not  be  molested  in 
their  synagogues,  was  not  the  only  Pope  who 
showed  a  kindly  spirit.  The  churchmen  of 
Sens  were  inflamed  in  the  days  of  Innocent 
III.  because  the  synagogue's  structure  was 
higher  than  the  church,  although  in  the 
fourteenth  century  in  Rome,  church  and 
synagogue  were  close  neighbours  without 
awakening  any  ill-feeling.  In  Hamburg  as 
late  as  1612  Jews  were  not  allowed  to  have 
synagogues ;  nor  was  the  privilege  to  have  a 
place  of  worship  in  New  Amsterdam  and  early 
New  York  secured  without  a  struggle.  Such 
were  the  varying  fortunes  of  the  synagogue, 
in  different  times  and  in  different  places, 
which  can  hardly  be  realised  in  favoured 
lands  to-day. 

The  historic  Old-New  Synagogue  of  Prague 
furnishes  a  good  illustration  of  the  experiences 
which  have  been  endured  from  age  to  age. 
Its  early  origin  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  in 


1 86  What  Is  Judaism? 

1142  it  was  destroyed  by  fire,  although 
speedily  rebuilt.  In  1336  King  John  robbed 
it  of  gold  and  silver;  in  1389  it  was  the  scene 
of  ghastly  persecution,  men,  women,  and 
children  being  slain  within  its  walls.  An 
elegy  composed  shortly  afterwards  is  still  re- 
cited in  the  synagogue  on  the  Day  of  Atone- 
ment, in  memory  of  that  catastrophe.  The 
synagogue  was  ever  the  centre  of  similar 
scenes,  as  the  Jews  were  subjected  to  the 
caprice  of  their  rulers.  In  1744,  when  the 
Prussians  abandoned  Prague,  the  house  of 
worship  suffered  severely,  and  it  was  plun- 
dered by  Maria  Theresa's  troops.  In  1784, 
when  the  Moldau  had  a  disastrous  inunda- 
tion, the  synagogue  was  injured.  Yet  amid 
the  ravages  of  fire  and  water,  and  ruffianly 
desecration  in  war  time,  it  has  survived. 
There  can  be  seen  hanging  in  the  synagogue's 
interior  a  banner  richly  embroidered  with 
gold  and  suitably  inscribed,  an  heirloom  in 
which  all  take  pride.  This  was  given  to  the 
congregation,  according  to  one  version,  by 
Charles  IV.,  and  according  to  another  it  was 
a  reward  for  their  courageous  defence  of  the 
city  during  the  siege  by  the  Swedes  in  1648. 
No  symbol  could  be  happier  in  its  testimony 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue    187 

to  the  fact  which  Prof.  Goldwin  Smith  once, 
when  Disraeli's  satire  was  still  rankling, 
denied — that  Jews  can  be  patriots. 

Many  are  the  legends  which  are  associated 
with  the  edifice,  whose  rather  sombre  interior 
has  been  renovated,  but  none  is  more  sug- 
gestive than  that  of  the  dove — a  bird  which 
is  popular  in  folk-lore.  During  one  of  the 
most  extensive  conflagrations  in  the  Ghetto, 
when  the  synagogue  seemed  doomed,  a  dove 
was  observed  alighting  upon  the  roof's 
highest  pinnacle  and  keeping  its  perilous 
place  untouched  and  unterrified  amid  the 
smoke  and  flame  from  adjacent  dwellings 
which  came  ever  nearer.  Through  those 
hours  of  dismay  the  dove  never  left  its  perch 
for  a  moment,  but  held  its  post  like  a  sentinel 
to  repel  disaster.  Then  when  the  fire  had 
been  stayed  and  danger  averted,  the  dove, 
as  if  satisfied  that  its  presence  was  no  longer 
required,  took  to  flight  and  was  seen  no  more, 
while  the  people  wondered  at  the  miracle. 

Hardly  less  remarkable  was  the  fate  of  the 
synagogue  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main.  In 
1241,  the  year  of  the  first  massacre  of  the 
Jews,  the  synagogue  suffered  severely,  and 
its  unpleasant  experience  was  repeated  in 


188  What  Is  Judaism? 

1349.  When  the  Jewish  quarter  was  trans- 
ferred in  1462,  the  synagogue  was  made  to 
serve  general  communal  purposes.  In  1874 
the  foundations  of  the  old  structure  were 
revealed — it  consisted  of  a  square  apartment 
with  a  half-round  niche  for  the  scrolls  of  the 
Law;  on  the  northern  side  was  the  women's 
synagogue.  Before  the  new  Jewish  quarter 
was  occupied,  in  1461,  a  synagogue  was  built 
at  the  city's  cost,  close  to  which,  in  1603,  a 
new  edifice  was  erected.  Both  were  attacked 
by  the  mob  in  1614  and  were  burnt  to  the 
ground  in  1711;  but  the  restoration  began 
in  the  same  year  on  the  old  site  and  with  the 
old  materials.  In  1854  it  was  torn  down  to 
make  room  for  the  present  edifice,  not  far 
from  the  original  home  of  the  Rothschilds. 

If  the  old  synagogues  which  survive 
breathe  of  the  stormy  past,  the  new  syna- 
gogue at  Rome,  which  was  dedicated  not 
many  months  ago  and  whose  site  was  given 
by  the  municipality  in  exchange  for  a  strip 
of  ground  in  the  Ghetto,  has  a  more  exultant 
atmosphere;  for  its  stately  fa$ade  and  mag- 
nificent interior  suggest  the  new  century 
and  the  progress  which  has  been  won.  The 
oldest  Jewish  community  in  Europe,  its 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue     189 

existence  for  2000  years  is  little  short  of  a 
miracle,  for  despite  unhealthy  quarters  bor- 
dering on  the  Tiber,  in  which  it  has  been 
caged  for  centuries,  until  recent  decades,  it 
has  survived  its  more  or  less  aristocratic 
foes — emperor,  noble,  and  prelate.  While 
the  condition  of  the  Jews  of  Rome  was  often 
bearable,  compared  with  the  fate  of  their 
brethren  in  the  greater  part  of  Europe,  when 
Paul  IV.,  in  1556,  officially  established  the 
Ghetto — the  word  is  of  Venetian  origin — the 
most  odious  forms  of  persecution  became 
the  fashion.  Here  for  two  centuries  the  Jews 
had  to  participate  with  asses,  buffaloes,  and 
Barbary  steeds  in  the  races  on  the  Corso, 
amid  the  shouts  and  ribaldry  of  the  multitude. 
Here  for  many  hundred  years  they  had  to 
receive  each  new  Pope,  with  knees  bent  in 
homage  and  holding  in  their  hands  the  scrolls 
of  the  Law.  Here  as  late  as  1847  Jews  above 
the  age  of  twelve  were  whipped  into  attend- 
ance at  church  on  Saturday  afternoons  so 
that  they  might  be  converted.  Here  they 
were  allowed  to  have  only  one  building  as  a 
synagogue,  wherein,  until  it  was  destroyed 
by  fire  in  1893,  five  separate  congregations 
were  housed.  Here,  too,  their  occupations 


What  Is  Judaism? 


were  often  restricted  by  law  to  dealing  in  old 
clothes,  rags,  and  iron.  It  was  enough  to 
devitalise  any  community,  but  the  treatment 
did  not  kill,  and  out  of  their  midst  have  gone 
forth  the  first  lexicographer  of  the  Talmud, 
a  poet  friend  of  Dante,  famous  writers, 
physicians,  musicians. 

It  was  in  1870,  after  desultory  efforts,  that 
the  Jews  of  Rome  took  effective  steps  to  have 
the  Ghetto  destroyed,  with  the  ascension  of 
Victor  Emmanuel.  Fifteen  years  later  the 
noxious  quarter  was  levelled.  The  new 
synagogue,  built  in  a  different  section,  tells 
the  story  of  emancipation.  If  stones  could 
speak,  what  could  not  the  Arch  of  Titus  — 
dating  from  70  of  the  common  era  —  tell  of  the 
whirligig  of  time  which  brings  its  revenges, 
but  few  more  decisive,  to  rejoice  the  cold 
chiselled  figures  of  Jewish  captives  from  Jeru- 
salem, than  that  new  temple  where  the  Law 
is  still  recited,  despite  the  legions  of  Vespa- 
sian and  eighteen  centuries  of  Rome's  sover- 
eignty in  varied  forms  !  Do  the  old  occupants 
of  the  Pantheon  know  of  the  sacrilege,  and 
what  would  Horace  or  Juvenal  or  Tacitus  say 
now  of  the  synagogue? 

One  is  tempted  to  dwell  at  greater  length 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue     191 

on  the  varied  fortunes  of  the  synagogue 
and  the  legends  that  twine  around  the  old 
structures,  but  a  subject  of  wider  interest 
must  be  considered — its  architecture.  One 
might  infer  from  popular  impressions  of 
Jewish  exclusiveness  that  the  synagogue  had 
its  special  form  of  architecture  from  which  a 
departure  was  heresy.  The  fact  is,  there  is 
no  distinctly  Jewish  architecture — it  is  ec- 
lectic and  varies  with  the  environment.  In 
Jerusalem  an  old  synagogue  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  mosque.  The  interior  of  the 
Romanesque  synagogue  of  Regensburg,  which 
centuries  ago  fell  a  prey  to  the  flames,  has  the 
lines  of  the  Cathedral  of  Spires.  The  St. 
Petersburg  synagogue  has  unmistakably  the 
characteristic  exterior  of  a  Russian  Greek 
church.  Perhaps  the  Gothic  and  Moorish 
in  varied  modifications  are  seen  most  fre- 
quently, but  although  the  arch,  the  dome,  and 
the  minaret  are  often  presented,  the  steeple 
and  the  belfry  are  absent.  Perhaps  the 
synagogue  is  hospitable  enough  to  adopt 
these  in  the  future. 

The  synagogue  ruins  in  Galilee,  dating 
from  150  to  300  of  the  common  era,  are  of 
Roman  character  in  their  masonry,  moulding, 


192  What  Is  Judaism? 

and  ornamentation — proving  how  early  cur- 
rent styles  were  adopted.  Toledo's  famous 
synagogue,  changed  into  a  church  in  1405,  and 
known  as  Santa  Maria  la  Blancha,  is  built 
after  the  most  approved  Moorish-Spanish 
design,  which  can  only  faintly  be  seen  in 
illustration.  Its  plan  is  that  of  a  basilica,  the 
ground  floor  tiled,  being  an  oblong  square 
about  ninety  by  sixty-five  feet,  divided  into 
five  naves  or  aisles,  divided  by  four  rows  of 
octagon  pillars,  nine  in  each  row.  Horse- 
shoe arches  of  peculiar  Moorish  pattern  rise 
from  these  columns.  Over  the  arches,  whose 
spandrels  are  carved  into  elegant  rose- 
patterns,  is  placed  a  second  arcade,  orna- 
mented with  pure  Byzantine  work,  appearing 
like  stone-lace.  A  third  series  of  stalactite 
archlets  rests  upon  double  pillarets,  crowned 
by  an  elaborate  frieze  reaching  to  the  roof. 
This  roof,  though  of  wood,  has  the  durability 
of  rock,  and,  black  with  age,  still  shows  traces 
of  gold  ornamentation.  The  edifice  was  used 
as  a  Magdalen  Asylum  in  1550,  and  on  the 
French  invasion,  in  1792,  was  appropriated 
for  military  barracks. 

Sicily  has  a  Gothic  Catholic  church  which 
was   formerly   a   synagogue.     The   wooden 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue     193 

structures  to  be  found  originally  in  Poland 
and  parts  of  Russia,  from  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries,  and  somewhat 
later,  have  been  made  the  subject  of 
special  monographs.  Some  of  these  houses 
of  worship  were  built  as  bulwarks  against 
Tartar  inroads;  others  with  their  flat 
roofs  and  openings  show  indubitable  signs 
that  they  could  harbour  cannon  when  the 
Jews  were  forced  to  defend  themselves. 
They  form  a  curious  study  for  the  modern 
architect,  and  are  not  likely  to  serve  as 
models  for  our  days. 

The  latest  synagogues,  built  on  the  broad 
places  of  the  chief  cities  and  no  longer  hidden 
in  the  narrow  Ghetto,  represent  all  styles  of 
architecture.  The  Classic,  the  Renaissance, 
the  Byzantine,  the  Romanesque,  with  a 
blending  of  the  Gothic  and  the  Moorish,  can 
be  found  in  all  directions.  The  new  syna- 
gogues in  Szegedin  and  Temesvar;  in 
Berlin,  Strasburg,  and  Cologne;  in  Florence, 
Rome,  and  Turin;  with  similar  edifices  in 
Budapest,  Breslau,  Glogau,  Hanover,  Koe- 
nigsberg,  Frankfort,  Munich,  Paris,  Posen, 
Vienna,  and  Warsaw,  show  freedom  and 
beauty  in  their  construction.  The  same 
13 


194  What  Is  Judaism? 

variety  of  style  is  illustrated   in   American 
synagogues  and  temples. 

A  word  only  in  this  connection  as  to  the 
interior  arrangement  that  reproduces  in 
certain  features  the  lines  of  the  older  taber- 
nacle, which  itself  suggested  interior  arrange- 
ments in  Solomon's  Temple.  In  the  centre 
of  the  main  floor  is  usually  an  elevated  plat- 
form from  which  the  prayers  are  read. 
Directly  facing  the  entrance  from  the  vesti- 
bule, which  is  generally  at  the  western  end, 
so  that  the  synagogue  may  face  the  east,  is 
the  Ark,  or  receptacle  for  the  scrolls  of  the 
Law  or  Pentateuch,  before  which  is  hung  a 
curtain.  In  the  old  synagogues  there  was 
either  a  latticed  gallery  or  a  special  room  for 
women  worshippers.  In  many  of  the  later 
synagogues,  reading  desk  and  pulpit  are 
combined  before  the  Ark,  while  in  reformed 
American  congregations  family  pews  have 
been  introduced,  thus  doing  away  with  the 
Oriental  feature  of  the  women's  gallery.  It 
can  readily  be  seen  how  Ark,  curtain,  gallery, 
and  columns  lend  themselves  to  splendid  and 
unique  ornamentation.  Although  the  plastic 
art  has  received  little  encouragement,  carved 
wood  and  rich  marbles  are  generally  em- 


The  Story  of  the  Synagogue     195 

ployed,  onyx,  gold,  and  mosaics  being  used 
with  fine  effect.  In  the  Orient  many  a  syna- 
gogue whose  exterior  is  sombre  and  uninvit- 
ing has  magnificent  interior  furnishings  and 
decorations.  The  Italian  synagogues,  in 
particular,  in  a  land  where  artistic  genius  is 
almost  universal,  are  remarkable  for  the 
costly  embroidered  curtains  and  architectural 
beauty  of  the  Ark,  in  whose  enrichment  a 
generous  rivalry  is  exhibited.  In  this  respect 
a  synagogue  appears  like  a  votive  shrine,  and 
elaborate  gifts,  often  women's  exquisite 
handiwork,  are  treasured  from  generation  to 
generation  until  they  acquire  a  venerable  age, 
to  become  a  powerful  object-lesson  to  the 
young,  and  to  the  old  worshipper  matters  for 
pious  contemplation. 


CHAPTER  XV 

A   NEW  FIELD   FOR   RELIGION 

IF  ours  may  not  be  called  the  international 
era,  there  is  little  doubt  that  such  an  era 
is  fast  approaching.  Just  as  bits  of  spar  and 
wandering  birds  betoken  land  to  the  tourist 
at  sea,  there  are  signs  as  unmistakable  which 
are  full  of  hopeful  prophecy.  Steam  and  the 
telegraph  are  giving  the  nations  one  language. 
The  great  world-capitals  now  throb  in  unison. 
Toward  the  portals  of  the  same  university— 
that  of  travel — flock  millions  from  every 
civilised  race;  and  the  course  tends  to  bring 
the  graduates  of  every  land  and  creed  into  a 
fellowship  as  mysterious  as  it  is  profound. 
It  teaches  humanity,  if  not  the  humanities. 

As  a  result  of  the  unparalleled  increase 
in  the  facilities  of  intercommunication,  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  men  are  stirring 
from  their  enforced  isolation  and  by  a  sym- 
pathetic impulse  are  impelled  toward  union. 
196 


A  New  Field  for  Religion     197 

In  the  days  of  the  migration  of  nations — a 
process  still  continuing,  if  in  a  modified  form 
—prehistoric  tribes  and  races  of  well-ascer- 
tained origin  could  spread  like  an  avalanche ; 
and,  bursting  their  narrow  confines,  over- 
whelm cities  and  countries,  thus  giving  new 
form  and  character  to  the  world's  history. 
To-day  nations  emigrate  slowly  if  surely ;  but 
ideas  migrate,  so  to  speak,  with  greater 
rapidity,  and  with  the  impetuosity  of  an 
Alpine  torrent  overcome  every  obstacle,  and 
broaden  humanity's  ever-widening  stream. 

The  most  significant  sign  of  the  inter- 
national age  at  hand  is  the  denationalisation 
of  the  silent  forces  that  condition  all  progress. 
Science,  art,  literature,  medicine,  law,  are  no 
longer  local  and  national;  they  are  inter- 
national. They  represent  world-guilds — 
unsectarian,  universal.  Within  late  years, 
the  international  medical,  hygienic,  literary, 
electric,  law,  Oriental,  and  stenographic  con- 
gresses, held  in  Europe  and  America,  and 
participated  in  by  the  foremost  men  in  their 
respective  fields,  are  harbingers  that  "the 
individual  withers  and  the  world  is  more 
and  more." 

It  is  possible — and  the  last  International 


198  What  Is  Judaism? 

Oriental  Congress  at  Vienna  proved  the  fact 
— for  Christian,  Moslem,  and  Hebrew  to 
co-operate  in  scientific  advancement.  Why 
must  philology,  for  instance,  be  the  only 
field  where  such  co-operation  is  practicable? 
Why  must  hygiene,  law,  medicine,  science, 
literature,  and  kindred  subjects  be  raised  to 
the  dignity  of  international  problems?  Surely 
the  increasing  catholicity  of  mankind  is  not 
to  be  limited  to  these  departments.  There 
is  pressing  need  of  developing  the  inter- 
national idea  to  that  most  vital  of  all  sub- 
jects— religion.  There  is  a  call,  then,  for  an 
international  religious  congress,  to  be  com- 
posed of  representatives  of  all  religions 
that  make  for  righteousness  and  recognise  in 
some  form  or  manner  God,  virtue,  and 
immortality. 

Local  lines  are  fast  dropping  out  of  the 
creeds  with  which  we  are  most  familiar.  The 
Evangelical  Alliance  has  had  a  happy  in- 
fluence in  welding  together  the  great  majority 
of  Protestant  Christians  throughout  the 
world.  Church  congresses  at  home  and 
abroad  are  marshalling  their  adherents  on 
broader  grounds.  But  attempts  to  range  the 
religions  beyond  their  national  lines  have 


A  New  Field  for  Religion     199 

never  yet  been  made.  The  inner  wall  is  falling 
slowly;  but  the  outer  rampart  frowns  just  as 
defiantly  as  in  the  days  of  warring  creeds  and 
religious  persecutions.  The  rampart  must  be 
levelled,  that  co-operation,  not  enmity,  be 
the  programme  of  the  coming  age. 

It  may  be  called  too  rose-coloured  a  view 
to  claim  that  the  border-land  of  the  creeds  is 
widening  day  by  day.  You  may  point  to 
ugly  disabilities  against  Jews  and  Protestants 
in  Russia.  You  may  refer  to  anti-Semitism 
in  German-speaking  lands.  The  persistency 
of  ancient  prejudices  is  not  to  be  denied,  but 
their  force  is  overestimated,  and  they  are 
gradually  dying.  London,  for  example,  not 
satisfied  with  electing  a  Jewish  lord  mayor 
some  years  ago,  has  now  a  Catholic  in  that 
office.  In  our  own  country,  on  a  recent 
Thanksgiving  Day  in  more  than  one  town, 
Protestant,  Catholic,  and  Hebrew  partici- 
pated in  the  services.  In  most  cases,  race- 
prejudice  is  social,  political,  and  personal,  and 
not  at  all  religious.  The  immense  pro- 
gress made  in  toleration  since  the  French 
Revolution  has  been  organic,  not  mechanical. 
The  civilised  world  is  not  likely  to  go  back- 
ward, but  the  indications  point  the  other  way, 


200  What  Is  Judaism? 

as  commerce  irresistibly  advances  and  all 
languages  fuse  into  one. 

I  am  well  aware  of  the  fallacies  of  ethical 
sentimentalism.  The  lion  and  the  lamb 
retain  all  the  peculiarities  of  their  species 
and  still  show  no  disposition  to  lie  down  to- 
gether in  childlike  peace.  Not  so  many 
decades  ago  Fichte  and  his  select  school  of 
idealists  spun  their  fantastic  dreams,  which  the 
rude  shock  of  war  swiftly  dissipated.  Les- 
sing's  ideal  of  the  gradual  progress  of  mankind 
toward  perfection  will  take  a  few  years  to 
be  accomplished — we  have  scarcely  reached 
the  New  Atlantis  yet.  There  are  ugly  forces 
in  our  civilisation  which  have  first  to  be 
eliminated — new  powers  have  to  come  into 
play.  What  ages,  what  epochs,  have  to 
pass  before  the  final  era  of  transformation 
begins,  "when  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the 
knowledge  of  God  as  the  waters  cover  the 
seas."  But  without  going  to  the  lengths  of 
moralists  of  the  Delia  Cruscan  School,  cer- 
tainly a  reasonable  optimism  is  to  be  main- 
tained. 

"  A  second  voice  was  at  mine  ear, 
A  little  whisper  silver  clear, 
A  murmur,  '  Be  of  better  cheer.'  " 


A  New  Field  for  Religion     201 

In  one  of  Berthold  Auerbach's  tales,  he 
refers  to  the  effect  produced  by  the  tones  of  a 
bell,  heard  as  one  enters  a  forest,  becoming 
fainter  and  fainter,  like  fading  hope,  as  the 
traveller  proceeds.  There  is  beauty  in  the 
simile;  but,  like  many  of  its  class,  it  can 
serve  a  double  purpose.  What  of  the  joyous 
effect  of  bird-song  or  bell-note,  growing 
louder  and  louder  as  one  nears  the  forest's 
end,  until  daylight  bursts  upon  the  traveller? 
Such  bird -songs  and  bell-notes  can  no  longer 
be  disdained. 

When  Schiller  wrote  in  his  Wilhelm  Tell: 

"That  was  a  shot! 
It  will  be  talked  of  to  the  latest  ages  " — 

an  idea  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  Emerson's 
famous  line: 

"  Fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world" — 

the  poet  symbolised  the  unity  of  the  human 
race  and  its  common,  inalienable  aspirations 
and  sympathies.  The  idea  of  human  brother- 
hood is  more  and  more  recognised  in  this 
century,  marked  not  alone  by  material 
progress,  but  by  spiritual  and  moral  activity 


202  What  Is  Judaism? 

as  well.  When  we  for  a  moment  emerge  from 
our  bundle  of  hereditary  prejudices,  and 
prove  superior  to  the  narrow  and  exclusive 
views  for  which  our  education  alone  is  re- 
sponsible, we  begin  to  see  that  the  sky  is 
broader  and  larger  than  the  little  patch  above 
us.  That  acknowledgment  is  a  great  step 
forward.  The  next  is  the  determination  to 
have  an  open  window  in  our  creed;  we  crave 
more  light,  more  air,  and  the  sweet  sym- 
phonies from  our  neighbour's  house  no 
longer  offend  us.  We  discern  therein  familiar 
harmonies — spirit-calls  to  kindly  deeds. 

I  love  to  dwell  upon  the  common  utter- 
ances in  the  Scriptures  to  which  people  of 
different  races  attach  such  veneration.  The 
mental  flora  and  fauna  of  the  nations  disclose 
strange  similarities;  and  yet  not  strange,  for 
are  they  not  written  by  the  finger  of  God? 
When  I  read  a  sentence  from  a  rabbi  in  the 
Talmud,  breathing  of  love  and  toleration; 
when  I  turn  to  just  as  fragrant  a  thought 
in  the  Christian  Testament ;  when  some  uni- 
versal law  of  humanity  is  wafted  from  the 
Koran  or  inspired  by  the  Buddhist  sage — 
such  coincidences  prove  the  inherent  unity 
of  all  human  nature,  and  strung  together, 


A  New  Field  for  Religion     203 

as  they  will  be  in  the  age  to  come,  will  form 
the  Bible  of  humanity : 

"  Slowly  the  Bible  of  the  race  is  writ, 
And  not  on  paper  leaves  nor  leaves  of  stone. 
Each  age,  each  kindred  adds  a  verse  to  it, 
Texts  of  despair  or  hope,  of  joy  or  moan. 
Still  at  the  prophets'  feet  the  nations  sit." 

People  are  nearer  each  other  than  many 
think.  In  my  summer  vacation  I  am  often 
amazed  to  find  that  a  good  Episcopalian,  a 
cheery  Methodist,  a  bland  Universalist,  and 
a  ruddy  Catholic  are  men  and  brethren.  It 
is  possible  that  we  all  may  agree  to  be  silent 
on  some  topics,  but  on  how  many  does  per- 
fect concord  reign!  And  how  invigorating 
the  intercourse!  There  is  no  hypocrisy  in 
such  agreement  of  minds  supposed  to  be  con- 
stitutionally unsympathetic.  We  recognise 
a  common  brotherhood  and  our  synagogue 
or  our  church  is  given  an  added  sanctity. 
We  lose  not  an  iota  of  our  loyalty  to  our 
creed,  but  we  hear  the  joy-bells  of  the  creed 
to  be.  When  the  brief  spell  of  vacation  is 
past,  and  we  have  all  resumed  our  respective 
robes  of  office — cassock,  gown,  rabbi's  cap, 
and  the  rest — who  can  deny  that  each  of  us 
is  better  for  the  kindly  interchange  of  views? 


204  What  Is  Judaism? 

The  Psalms  of  David  have  grown  in  meaning 
to  me  since  I  heard  them  in  a  lovely  ivy-clad 
church  in  Berkshire.  I  can  appreciate  the 
beauties  of  Keble  without  weakening  the 
charm  which  Judah  Hallevi,  the  sweet  singer 
of  the  synagogue,  has  always  exercised.  And 
if  the  warm  hand-clasp,  the  beaming  eye, 
the  hearty  phrase  mean  anything,  my  Catho- 
lic or  Protestant  brother  has  been  similarly 
affected.  He  feels  now  that  a  man  can  be 
a  Jew  and  a  brother. 

But  it  is  not  only  this  friendly  intercourse, 
it  is  co-operation  of  the  creeds  for  human 
betterment  which  is  the  hopeful  sign  of  the 
times.  The  gentlemen  who  personally  orga- 
nised a  lodging-house  in  the  most  unsavoury 
section  of  a  large  city  never  asked,  What 
church  do  you  belong  to?  Nor  did  they 
inquire  as  to  the  religious  principles  of  the 
recipients  of  their  bounty.  They  did  not 
insist  upon  hymns,  or  psalm-singing,  or  daily 
devotions.  It  was  a  common  humanity  that 
impelled  them  to  kindly  deeds.  The  scales 
may  have  fallen  from  some  of  our  eyes;  they 
are  not  likely  to  be  resumed.  "Without 
distinction  of  creed"  is  the  motto  of  the  true 
philanthropist. 


A  New  Field  for  Religion     205 

The  border-land  of  the  creeds  is  widening 
day  by  day.  People  are  gradually  awaken- 
ing to  the  points  of  agreement  between  the 
different  sects,  and  find  themselves  not  so 
very  far  apart  that  they  cannot  stretch  a 
helping  hand  across  the  gap.  One  crucial 
test  is  demanded — not  the  repetition  of 
prayer  or  formula,  not  antiquity,  or  vest- 
ments, or  wealthy  endowments,  or  venerable 
associations,  but  the  translation  into  life  of 
what  is  best  and  purest  in  the  traditional 
faith  and  symbol.  The  weaknesses  no  less 
than  the  virtues  of  a  common  humanity  array 
us  shoulder  to  shoulder.  It  is  beginning  to 
be  understood  that  the  universals  of  honesty, 
virtue,  purity,  cement  men  more  firmly  than 
the  particulars  of  doctrine  and  litany,  which 
have  a  knack  of  driving  men  apart  and 
convert  religion  into  rancour.  The  manly 
preacher,  the  thoughtful  worker  in  every 
creed  finds  the  basis  broadening  for  common 
action. 

The  nations  are  by  no  means  out  of  the 
forest,  but  bird-note  and  bell-sound  are 
growing  louder  and  clearer.  It  will  not  be 
always  forest  and  enmity  and  bitter  recrimi- 
nation among  those  who  should  hasten  the 


206  What  Is  Judaism? 

era  of  peace  and  good- will  on  earth.  To 
emphasise  that  sentiment  in  the  broadest 
possible  way,  action  is  needed.  And  an 
international  religious  congress,  composed 
of  representatives  of  every  sect  that  works 
for  righteousness — for  God,  for  virtue,  for 
immortality — would  be  one  powerful  and 
practicable  method  of  welding  together  the 
world-religions. 

But  it  may  be  said  in  objection  to  the  plan 
— it  is  ahead  of  the  age.  Let  this  thought 
from  Robert  Browning  be  answer: 

"  'T  is  in  the  advance  of  individual  minds 

That  the  slow  crowd  should  ground  their  expectations, 

Eventually  to  follow — as  the  sea 

Waits  ages  in  its  bed,  till  some  one  wave 

But  of  the  multitude  aspires,  extends 

The  empire  of  the  whole,  some  feet,  perhaps, 

Over  the  strip  of  sand  which  could  confine 

Its  fellows  so  long  time;  thenceforth  the  rest, 

Even  to  the  meanest,  hurry  in  at  once, 

And  so  much  is  clear  gain." , 


A     000  191  353     2 


